Mobile device equipped with mobile network congestion recognition to make intelligent decisions regarding connecting to an operator network

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for recognizing congestion in a mobile network to make intelligent decisions regarding connecting to an operator network is disclosed. A mobile device having a local proxy equipped with congestion recognition capabilities can use time elapsed to establish connection with a mobile base station in the mobile network to recognize congestion at the mobile base station. Further, in response to recognizing congestion at the mobile base station, the local proxy can selectively block traffic from the mobile device from traversing the mobile network to reduce signaling overload on the mobile network.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/956,174, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,326,185, filed on Jul. 31, 2013and entitled “MOBILE NETWORK CONGESTION RECOGNITION FOR OPTIMIZATION OFMOBILE TRAFFIC’, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 13/956,133, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,750,123, filed on Jul. 31, 2013 andentitled “MOBILE DEVICE EQUIPPED WITH MOBILE NETWORK CONGESTIONRECOGNITION TO MAKE INTELLIGENT DECISIONS REGARDING CONNECTING TO ANOPERATOR NETWORK”, which claims priority to and benefit from: U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 61/776,573 titled “MOBILE DEVICEEQUIPPED WITH MOBILE NETWORK CONGESTION RECOGNITION TO MAKE INTELLIGENTDECISIONS REGARDING CONNECTING TO AN OPERATOR NETWORK” (Attorney DocketNo. 76443-8163.US00), filed on Mar. 11, 2013; U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 61/818,801 titled “MOBILE DEVICE EQUIPPED WITH MOBILENETWORK CONGESTION RECOGNITION TO MAKE INTELLIGENT DECISIONS REGARDINGCONNECTING TO AN OPERATOR NETWORK” (Attorney Docket No.76443-8163.US02), filed on May 2, 2013; U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 61/829,965, entitled “MOBILE DEVICE EQUIPPED WITH MOBILENETWORK CONGESTION RECOGNITION TO MAKE INTELLIGENT DECISIONS REGARDINGCONNECTING TO AN OPERATOR NETWORK,” (Attorney Docket No.76443-8163.US03), filed on May 31, 2013; and, U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 61/776,584 entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF FACILITATINGAN OPERATOR TO PROACTIVELY IDENTIFY WEAKNESS AREAS AND POOR PACKETACCESS IN A WIRELESS NETWORK,” (Attorney Docket No. 076443-8164.US00),filed Mar. 11, 2013. The aforementioned applications are herebyincorporated by reference in entirety.

BACKGROUND

Applications on smartphones, tablets and other always on devicesconstantly signal the mobile network for updates and other datarequests. The constant polling from mobile devices puts a burden on themobile network, causing mobile network congestion. Solutions thatinvolve upgrading operator hardware to Long Term Evolution (LTE) andother technologies has only limited effect on reducing mobile networkcongestion because of the exponential increase in data traffic frommobile devices.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A-1, 1A-2 and 1A-3 depict example signaling for data connectionestablishment between a mobile device and a base station under differenttraffic conditions.

FIG. 1B illustrates an example diagram of a system where a host serverfacilitates management of traffic, content caching, and/or resourceconservation between mobile devices (e.g., wireless devices), anapplication server or content provider, or other servers such as an adserver, promotional content server, or an e-Coupon server in a wirelessnetwork (or broadband network) for resource conservation. The hostserver can further aggregate mobile network congestion reports frommultiple mobile devices, perform processing and/or analysis on data fromthe aggregated congestion reports, and provide a report to mobilenetwork operators to help them understand their mobile network from themobile device perspective.

FIG. 1C illustrates an example diagram of a proxy and cache systemdistributed between the host server and a mobile device whichfacilitates network traffic management between the mobile device, anapplication server or content provider, or other servers such as an adserver, promotional content server, or an e-Coupon server for resourceconservation and content caching. The proxy system distributed among thehost server and the mobile device can further detect, generate, andaggregate mobile network congestion reports from multiple mobiledevices, process and/or analyze the aggregated congestion reports andprovide, on a near real time basis, a report on distribution andoccurrence of congestion to mobile network operators.

FIG. 1D illustrates an example diagram of the logical architecture of adistributed proxy and cache system, including a log storage andprocessing service.

FIG. 1E illustrates an example diagram showing the architecture ofclient side components in a distributed proxy and cache system,including a congestion detector or recognizer.

FIG. 1F illustrates a diagram of the example components on the serverside of the distributed proxy and cache system, including a packet callquality agent.

FIG. 2A illustrates a block diagram depicting an example of client-sidecomponents in a distributed proxy and cache system, further including acongestion detector or recognizer.

FIG. 2B illustrates a block diagram illustrating additional componentsin the congestion detector or recognizer shown in the example of FIG.2A.

FIG. 2C illustrates a block diagram depicting additional components inthe user activity module, the application behavior detector and theblocking policy manager shown in the example of FIG. 2A.

FIG. 2D illustrates a block diagram depicting components of a logstorage and processing service shown in FIG. 1F.

FIG. 3A illustrates a logic flow diagram of an example method foractivating or triggering congestion recognition logic.

FIGS. 3B-3C illustrate logic flow diagrams of an example method fordetecting and verifying congestion in the mobile network.

FIG. 4 illustrates a logic flow diagram of an example method fordetermining and confirming congestion in a mobile network using increasein setup times for establishing connection to the mobile network,reception quality of the connections, and distribution patterns of theconnections.

FIG. 5 illustrates a logic flow diagram of an example method foranticipating network congestion by a mobile device.

FIG. 6 illustrates a logic flow diagram of an example method formanaging data traffic on a mobile device to reduce network signaling.

FIG. 7 illustrates a logic flow diagram of an example method foroptimizing data traffic to reduce network signaling.

FIG. 8 illustrates examples of data sampled and analyzed by thecongestion detector or recognizer in detecting and verifying congestionin the mobile network.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example map generated using data from congestionreports aggregated from multiple mobile devices.

FIG. 10 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the exampleform of a computer system within which a set of instructions, forcausing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein, may be executed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description and drawings are illustrative and are not tobe construed as limiting. Numerous specific details are described toprovide a thorough understanding of the disclosure. However, in certaininstances, well-known or conventional details are not described in orderto avoid obscuring the description. References to one or an embodimentin the present disclosure can be, but not necessarily are, references tothe same embodiment; and, such references mean at least one of theembodiments.

Reference in this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodimentof the disclosure. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” invarious places in the specification are not necessarily all referring tothe same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodimentsmutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features aredescribed which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others.Similarly, various requirements are described which may be requirementsfor some embodiments but not other embodiments.

The terms used in this specification generally have their ordinarymeanings in the art, within the context of the disclosure, and in thespecific context where each term is used. Certain terms that are used todescribe the disclosure are discussed below, or elsewhere in thespecification, to provide additional guidance to the practitionerregarding the description of the disclosure. For convenience, certainterms may be highlighted, for example using italics and/or quotationmarks. The use of highlighting has no influence on the scope and meaningof a term; the scope and meaning of a term is the same, in the samecontext, whether or not it is highlighted. It will be appreciated thatsame thing can be said in more than one way.

Consequently, alternative language and synonyms may be used for any oneor more of the terms discussed herein. No special significance is to beplaced upon whether or not a term is elaborated or discussed herein.Synonyms for certain terms are provided. A recital of one or moresynonyms does not exclude the use of other synonyms. The use of examplesanywhere in this specification including examples of any terms discussedherein is illustrative only, and is not intended to further limit thescope and meaning of the disclosure or of any exemplified term.Likewise, the disclosure is not limited to various embodiments given inthis specification.

Without intent to limit the scope of the disclosure, examples ofinstruments, apparatus, methods, and their related results according tothe embodiments of the present disclosure are given below. Note thattitles or subtitles may be used in the examples for convenience of areader, which in no way should limit the scope of the disclosure. Unlessotherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein havethe same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in theart to which this disclosure pertains. In the case of conflict, thepresent document, including definitions, will control.

In many instances, mobile network operators are not prepared to handle asignaling storm. As a result, the mobile network operators blindly blockuser devices (e.g., mobile device) from accessing the network. However,the user device keeps querying the network for access, which requiressignaling processing from the already overloaded network. The disclosedtechnology provides a solution that equips a user device with congestionrecognition, which, in case of mobile network congestion, informs aclient or local proxy to prevent or block most of the traffic leavingfrom the user device, and allows only critically important ones to reachthe network. Using the disclosed technology, the user device isprevented from querying the congestion network for access, which canworsen the congestion situation.

The disclosed technology provides several advantages. A user deviceequipped with congestion recognition can detect network congestionindependent of other devices. Furthermore, the user device requires nocommunication with any other network components to avoid adding extrasignaling load. The user device having congestion recognition capabilityis smart enough to anticipate the congestion, without requiring anynetwork infrastructure support and without relying on a specific mobiledevice chipset or baseband, among others.

Embodiments of the present disclosure include systems and methods ofmobile network congestion recognition by a mobile device in a mobilenetwork. Embodiments of the present disclosure further include systemsand methods of generating and reporting mobile network congestionreports by a mobile device in a mobile network to a server. Embodimentsof the present disclosure also include systems and methods ofaggregating mobile network congestion information from mobile devices,and providing the network congestion information to mobile networkoperators.

In one embodiment, a mobile device equipped with congestion recognitioncan make a decision about a congestion happening in the operatornetwork. A single mobile device is able to detect the congestionindependently from any other mobile devices and without any form ofcommunication with a server side component. The ability to make thedetermination regarding congestion in the network, independently, is animportant feature because under congestion conditions, communicationwith the device is not guaranteed and any form of communication causesadditional load on the already congested network. Each congestionrecognition instance on a mobile device decides on its own by studyingmeasurements collected naturally by a local proxy on the mobile device.Once a congestion is recognized in the given operator network by thecongestion recognition component, the local proxy in the proxy system(e.g., the distributed proxy system shown in FIG. 1A-1E) applies ablocking policy to minimize the traffic outgoing from the mobile deviceto ease the congestion.

In one embodiment, congestion can be recognized, determined and/orestimated using one or more indicators of congestion in a network knownto or likely known to at the mobile device (e.g., by the local proxy).For example, one of these indicators can include an amount of time ittakes the mobile device to turn on a radio after a request to turn on aradio is received. This request to turn on the radio can be from arequest to place a call, a request made by an application, a user'srequest to access email, or the like. This delay can range from a fewhundred milliseconds, 1.5 seconds, up to a few more seconds. Dependingon the delay after which the radio turns on, and/or in combination withone or more other indicators known to the mobile device, the mobiledevice can make a decision with respect to the given mobile networkregarding whether to attempt to connect to the mobile network or to waitto connect to the mobile network for a given amount of time, or to applyan intelligent algorithm based on a computed level of congestion todetermine an optimal amount of time to wait before re-attempting toreconnect.

In a further embodiment, false positives in identifying or detectingcongestion is reduced or eliminated based on other indications such aswhether the mobile device is stationary or in motion, the number of basestations the mobile device connects to in a given amount of time,geographical locale, signal quality, network equipment characteristics,or the like.

FIGS. 1A-1, 1A-2 and 1A-3 depict example signaling for radio resourcecontrol (RRC) connection establishment between a mobile device and abase station under different traffic conditions.

The RRC protocol on the radio interface between a user device 150 and aradio access network (RAN) that includes a base station 112 is used forhandling the control plane signaling. The RRC protocol allows forconnection establishment and release and radio bearerestablishment/reconfiguration and release, among others. The RRC existsin two modes, the idle mode and the connected mode. Referring to FIG.1A-1, when the user device 150 is in the low or idle state 170 a, theuser device has no radio connection with the base station 112 in theradio access network, and is not involved in a voice call, datatransfer, etc. In order to transition from the idle state 170 a toconnected (or high) state 184 a, the mobile device 150 initiates an RRCconnection request 176 a towards the base station 112. The RRCconnection request 176 a can be initiated in response to a trigger fromthe mobile device (e.g., sending an email, making a call, or the like),or from the network (e.g., an incoming SMS message, a voice call, or thelike). For example, the RRC connection request 176 a can be in responseto detecting or intercepting a data request 172 a. Following a three-wayhandshake (176 a, 180 a and 182 a, for example) between the user device150 and the base station 112, the RRC state of the user equipmentchanges from idle to connected (e.g., DCH state). In an instance wherethe base station 112 is not congested, the setup time for establishingthe connection between the mobile device 150 and the base station 112 ismeasured as the time difference T₁ between detecting or intercepting ofthe data request 172 a and transition to connected state 184 a from idlestate.

Referring to FIG. 1A-2, when the base station 112 is congested, the timeto transition from idle RRC state 170 b to connected RRC state 184 b islonger than T₁. As a large number of mobile devices attempt to establisha connection with the base station 112, it takes longer for the basestation 112 to complete the three-way handshake (176 b, 180 b and 182 b,for example). This results in an increase in the setup time to T₂ fromT₁. Referring to FIG. 1A-3, as before, on detecting or intercepting adata request 172 c while the user device 150 is in idle state 170 c, theuser device 150 sends an RRC connection request 176 c towards the basestation 112. However, when the base station 112 reaches a critical levelof congestion, the base station 112 (i.e., the operator) has its ownmechanism to deal with the congestion by rejecting the connectionrequests 176 c from the user device 150 attempting to establish a radioconnection. However, the network operator's mechanism for sending an RRCconnection reject message 186 c is triggered only when the congestionreaches a critical level. Further, some operators may only indicate thecause of the rejection (i.e., congestion) in the rejection message,while others may indicate a wait time. The user device 150 then eithercontinues to send connection requests to the network to check foraccess, or waits until the wait time is over, before sending connectionrequests to check for access. In either situation, signaling continues,and can further exacerbate congestion at the network.

User devices equipped with congestion recognition can recognize theincrease in time to transition to a connected state when a radioconnection request is received, and can implement a blocking policy onthe traffic from the mobile device to the base station to reduce orprevent further signaling to the base station which can worsencongestion.

FIG. 1B illustrates an example diagram of a system where a host server100 facilitates management of traffic, content caching, and/or resourceconservation between mobile devices 150 (e.g., wireless devices), anapplication server 110 or content provider, or other servers such as anad server 120 a, promotional content server 120 b, or an e-Coupon server120 c in a wireless network (or broadband network) for resourceconservation. The host server can further aggregate mobile networkcongestion reports from multiple mobile devices, perform processingand/or analysis on data from the aggregated congestion reports, andprovide a report to mobile network operators to help them understandtheir mobile network from the mobile device perspective.

The client devices 150 can be any system and/or device, and/or anycombination of devices/systems that is able to establish a connection,including wired, wireless, cellular connections with another device, abase station 112, a server and/or other systems such as host server 100and/or application server/content provider 110. Client devices 150 willtypically include a display and/or other output functionalities topresent information and data exchanged between among the devices 150and/or the host server 100 and/or application server/content provider110. The application server/content provider 110 can by any serverincluding third party servers or service/content providers furtherincluding advertisement, promotional content, publication, or electroniccoupon servers or services. Similarly, separate advertisement servers120 a, promotional content servers 120 b, and/or e-Coupon servers 120 cas application servers or content providers are illustrated by way ofexample.

For example, the client/mobile devices 150 can include mobile, hand heldor portable devices, wireless devices, or non-portable devices and canbe any of, but not limited to, a server desktop, a desktop computer, acomputer cluster, or portable devices, including a notebook, a laptopcomputer, a handheld computer, a palmtop computer, a mobile phone, acell phone, a smartphone, a PDA, a Blackberry device, a Palm device, anytablet, a phablet (a class of smartphones with larger screen sizesbetween a typical smartphone and a tablet), a handheld tablet (e.g., aniPad, the Galaxy series, the Nexus, the Kindles, Kindle Fires, anyAndroid-based tablets, Windows-based tablets, or any other tablet), anyportable readers/reading devices, a hand held console, a hand heldgaming device or console, a head mounted device, a head mounted display,a thin client or any superphone such as the iPhone, and/or any otherportable, mobile, hand held devices, or fixed wireless interface such asa M2M device, etc. In one embodiment, the client devices 150 (or mobiledevices 150), host server 100, and application server 110 are coupledvia a network 106 and/or a network 108. In some embodiments, the devices150 and host server 100 may be directly connected to one another.

The input mechanism on client devices 150 can include touch screenkeypad (including single touch, multi-touch, gesture sensing in 2D or3D, etc.), a physical keypad, a mouse, a pointer, a track pad, a stylus,a stylus detector/sensor/receptor, motion detector/sensor (e.g.,including 1-axis, 2-axis, 3-axis accelerometer, etc.), a facedetector/recognizer, a retinal detector/scanner, a light sensor,capacitance sensor, resistance sensor, temperature sensor, proximitysensor, a piezoelectric device, device orientation detector (e.g.,electronic compass, tilt sensor, rotation sensor, gyroscope,accelerometer), or any combination of the above.

Signals received or detected indicating user activity at client devices150 through one or more of the above input mechanism, or others, can beused in the disclosed technology in acquiring context awareness at theclient device 150. Context awareness at client devices 150 generallyincludes, by way of example but not limitation, client device 150operation or state acknowledgement, management, useractivity/behavior/interaction awareness, detection, sensing, tracking,trending, and/or application (e.g., mobile applications) type, behavior,activity, operating state, etc.

Context awareness in the present disclosure also includes knowledge anddetection of network side contextual data and can include networkinformation such as network capacity, bandwidth, traffic, type ofnetwork/connectivity, and/or any other operational state data. Networkside contextual data can be received from and/or queried from networkservice providers (e.g., cell provider 112 and/or Internet serviceproviders) of the network 106 and/or network 108 (e.g., by the hostserver and/or devices 150). In addition to application context awarenessas determined from the client 150 side, the application contextawareness may also be received from or obtained/queried from therespective application/service providers 110 (by the host 100 and/orclient devices 150).

The host server 100 can use, for example, contextual informationobtained for client devices 150, networks 106/108, applications (e.g.,mobile applications), application server/provider 110, or anycombination of the above, to manage the traffic in the system to satisfydata needs of the client devices 150 (e.g., to satisfy application orany other request including HTTP request). In one embodiment, thetraffic is managed by the host server 100 to satisfy data requests madein response to explicit or non-explicit user 103 requests and/ordevice/application maintenance tasks. The traffic can be managed suchthat network consumption, for example, use of the cellular network isconserved for effective and efficient bandwidth utilization. Inaddition, the host server 100 can manage and coordinate such traffic inthe system such that use of device 150 side resources (e.g., includingbut not limited to battery power consumption, radio use,processor/memory use) are optimized with a general philosophy forresource conservation while still optimizing performance and userexperience. The host server 100 may also indirectly manage traffic viacreation, selection and/or deployment of traffic blocking policy forimplementation on the mobile device in some embodiments.

For example, in context of battery conservation, the device 150 canobserve user activity (for example, by observing user keystrokes,backlight status, or other signals via one or more input mechanisms,etc.) and alters device 150 behaviors. The device 150 can also requestthe host server 100 to alter the behavior for network resourceconsumption based on user activity or behavior.

In one embodiment, the traffic management for resource conservation isperformed using a distributed system between the host server 100 andclient device 150. The distributed system can include proxy server andcache components on the server side 100 and on the device/client side,for example, as shown by the server cache 135 on the server 100 side andthe local cache 185 on the client 150 side. In one embodiment, thetraffic management for reducing signaling in the network and reducing oralleviating network congestion can be implemented on the mobile device150 without any support from the server-side proxy or other network-sidecomponents.

In yet another embodiment, the traffic management can be triggered upondetection of congestion at the base stations 112 to which the clientdevices 150 is connected to or is attempting to connect to. The trafficmanagement includes selection and/or application of a blocking policyto, for example, selectively or completely block traffic from the clientdevices so that signaling towards the base station 112 is reduced oreliminated. For example, a blocking policy that allows only highpriority traffic towards the base station can be implemented whencongestion is detected at the base station. By way of another example, ablocking policy that allows traffic from certain applications towardsthe base station can be implemented to manage congestion at the basestation.

Functions and techniques disclosed for context aware traffic managementfor resource conservation in networks (e.g., network 106 and/or 108) anddevices 150, reside in a distributed proxy and cache system. The proxyand cache system can be distributed between, and reside on, a givenclient device 150 in part or in whole and/or host server 100 in part orin whole. The distributed proxy and cache system are illustrated withfurther reference to the example diagram shown in FIG. 1C. Functions andtechniques performed by the proxy and cache components in the clientdevice 150 and the related components therein are described,respectively, in detail with further reference to the examples of FIG.2A.

In one embodiment, client devices 150 communicate with the host server100 and/or the application server 110 over network 106, which can be acellular network and/or a broadband network. To facilitate overalltraffic management between devices 150 and various applicationservers/content providers 110 to implement network (bandwidthutilization) and device resource (e.g., battery consumption), the hostserver 100 can communicate with the application server/providers 110over the network 108, which can include the Internet (e.g., a broadbandnetwork).

In general, the networks 106 and/or 108, over which the client devices150, the host server 100, and/or application server 110 communicate, maybe a cellular network, a broadband network, a telephonic network, anopen network, such as the Internet, or a private network, such as anintranet and/or the extranet, or any combination thereof. For example,the Internet can provide file transfer, remote log in, email, news, RSS,cloud-based services, instant messaging, visual voicemail, push mail,VoIP, and other services through any known or convenient protocol, suchas, but is not limited to the TCP/IP protocol, UDP, HTTP, DNS, FTP,UPnP, NSF, ISDN, PDH, RS-232, SDH, SONET, etc.

The networks 106 and/or 108 include any collection of distinct networksoperating wholly or partially in conjunction to provide connectivity tothe client devices 150 and the host server 100 and may appear as one ormore networks to the serviced systems and devices. In one embodiment,communications to and from the client devices 150 can be achieved by, anopen network, such as the Internet, or a private network, broadbandnetwork, such as an intranet and/or the extranet. In one embodiment,communications can be achieved by a secure communications protocol, suchas secure sockets layer (SSL), or transport layer security (TLS).

In addition, communications can be achieved via one or more networks,such as, but are not limited to, one or more of WiMax, a Local AreaNetwork (LAN), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), a Personal areanetwork (PAN), a Campus area network (CAN), a Metropolitan area network(MAN), a Wide area network (WAN), a Wireless wide area network (WWAN),or any broadband network, and further enabled with technologies such as,by way of example, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM),Personal Communications Service (PCS), Bluetooth, WiFi, Fixed WirelessData, 2G, 2.5G, 3G (e.g., WCDMA/UMTS based 3G networks), 4G,IMT-Advanced, pre-4G, LTE Advanced, mobile WiMax, WiMax 2,WirelessMAN-Advanced networks, enhanced data rates for GSM evolution(EDGE), General packet radio service (GPRS), enhanced GPRS, iBurst,UMTS, HSPDA, HSUPA, HSPA, HSPA+, UMTS-TDD, 1×RTT, EV-DO, messagingprotocols such as, TCP/IP, SMS, MMS, extensible messaging and presenceprotocol (XMPP), real time messaging protocol (RTMP), instant messagingand presence protocol (IMPP), instant messaging, USSD, IRC, or any otherwireless data networks, broadband networks, or messaging protocols.

FIG. 1C illustrates an example diagram of a proxy and cache systemdistributed between the host server and a mobile device whichfacilitates network traffic management between the mobile device, anapplication server or content provider, or other servers such as an adserver, promotional content server, or an e-Coupon server for resourceconservation and content caching. The proxy system distributed among thehost server and the mobile device can further detect, generate andaggregate mobile network congestion reports from multiple mobiledevices, process and/or analyze the aggregated congestion reports andprovide, on a near real time basis, a report on distribution andoccurrence of congestion to mobile network operators.

The distributed proxy and cache system can include, for example, theproxy server 125 (e.g., remote proxy) and the server cache 135components on the server side. The server-side proxy 125 and cache 135can, as illustrated, reside internal to the host server 100. Inaddition, the proxy server 125 and cache 135 on the server-side can bepartially or wholly external to the host server 100 and in communicationvia one or more of the networks 106 and 108. For example, the proxyserver 125 may be external to the host server and the server cache 135may be maintained at the host server 100. Alternatively, the proxyserver 125 may be within the host server 100 while the server cache isexternal to the host server 100. In addition, each of the proxy server125 and the cache 135 may be partially internal to the host server 100and partially external to the host server 100. The applicationserver/content provider 110 can by any server including third partyservers or service/content providers further including advertisement,promotional content, publication, or electronic coupon servers orservices. Similarly, separate advertisement servers 120 a, promotionalcontent servers 120 b, and/or e-Coupon servers 120 c as applicationservers or content providers are illustrated by way of example.

The distributed system can also include, in one embodiment, client-sidecomponents, including by way of example but not limitation, a localproxy 175 (e.g., a mobile client on a mobile device) and/or a localcache 185, which can, as illustrated, reside internal to the device 150(e.g., a mobile device).

In addition, the client-side proxy 175 and local cache 185 can bepartially or wholly external to the device 150 and in communication viaone or more of the networks 106 and 108. For example, the local proxy175 may be external to the device 150 and the local cache 185 may bemaintained at the device 150. Alternatively, the local proxy 175 may bewithin the device 150 while the local cache 185 is external to thedevice 150. In addition, each of the proxy 175 and the cache 185 may bepartially internal to the host server 100 and partially external to thehost server 100.

In one embodiment, the distributed system can include an optionalcaching proxy server 199. The caching proxy server 199 can be acomponent which is operated by the application server/content provider110, the host server 100, or a network service provider 112, and or anycombination of the above to facilitate network traffic management fornetwork and device resource conservation. Proxy server 199 can be used,for example, for caching content to be provided to the device 150, forexample, from one or more of, the application server/provider 110, hostserver 100, and/or a network service provider 112. Content caching canalso be entirely or partially performed by the remote proxy 125 tosatisfy application requests or other data requests at the device 150.

In context aware traffic management and optimization for resourceconservation and/or congestion alleviation in a network (e.g., cellularor other wireless networks), characteristics of user activity/behaviorand/or application behavior at a mobile device (e.g., any wirelessdevice) 150 can be tracked by the local proxy 175 and communicated, overthe network 106 to the proxy server 125 component in the host server100, for example, as connection metadata. The proxy server 125 which inturn is coupled to the application server/provider 110 provides contentand data to satisfy requests made at the device 150. The local proxy 175can further detect congestion at the network, implement trafficmanagement strategies to ease the congestion at the network, andregularly report on detection of congestion to the proxy server 125 orthe host server 100.

In addition, the local proxy 175 can identify and retrieve mobile deviceproperties, including one or more of, battery level, network that thedevice is registered on, radio state, signal strength, cell identifier(i.e., cell ID), location area code, or whether the mobile device isbeing used (e.g., interacted with by a user). In some instances, thelocal proxy 175 can delay, expedite (prefetch), and/or modify data priorto transmission to the proxy server 125, when appropriate, as will befurther detailed with references to the description associated with theexamples of FIG. 2A.

The local database 185 can be included in the local proxy 175 or coupledto the local proxy 175 and can be queried for a locally stored responseto the data request prior to the data request being forwarded on to theproxy server 125. Locally cached responses can be used by the localproxy 175 to satisfy certain application requests of the mobile device150, by retrieving cached content stored in the cache storage 185, whenthe cached content is still valid.

Similarly, the proxy server 125 of the host server 100 can also delay,expedite, or modify data from the local proxy prior to transmission tothe content sources (e.g., the application server/content provider 110).In addition, the proxy server 125 uses device properties and connectionmetadata to generate rules for satisfying request of applications on themobile device 150. The proxy server 125 can gather real time trafficinformation about requests of applications for later use in optimizingsimilar connections with the mobile device 150 or other mobile devices.The proxy server 125 can further aggregate reports on detection ofcongestion from multiple mobile devices to provide reports on congestiondistribution and timing patterns and other information to operators ofthe networks.

In general, the local proxy 175 and the proxy server 125 are transparentto the multiple applications executing on the mobile device. The localproxy 175 is generally transparent to the operating system or platformof the mobile device and may or may not be specific to devicemanufacturers. In some instances, the local proxy 175 is optionallycustomizable in part or in whole to be device specific. In someembodiments, the local proxy 175 may be bundled into a wireless model, afirewall, and/or a router.

In one embodiment, the host server 100 can in some instances, utilizethe store and forward functions of a short message service center (SMSC)112, such as that provided by the network service provider, incommunicating with the device 150 in achieving network trafficmanagement. Note that SMSC 112 can also utilize any other type ofalternative channel including USSD or other network control mechanisms.The host server 100 can forward content or HTTP responses to the SMSC112 such that it is automatically forwarded to the device 150 ifavailable and for subsequent forwarding if the device 150 is notcurrently available.

In general, the disclosed distributed proxy and cache system allowsoptimization of network usage, for example, by serving requests from thelocal cache 185, the local proxy 175 reduces the number of requests thatneed to be satisfied over the network 106. Further, the local proxy 175and the proxy server 125 may filter irrelevant data from thecommunicated data. In addition, the local proxy 175 and the proxy server125 can also accumulate low priority data and send it in batches toavoid the protocol overhead of sending individual data fragments. Thelocal proxy 175 and the proxy server 125 can also compress or transcodethe traffic, reducing the amount of data sent over the network 106and/or 108. The signaling traffic in the network 106 and/or 108 can bereduced, as the networks are now used less often and the network trafficcan be synchronized among individual applications. Further, byrecognizing signs or indications of congestion at the network earlier,the local proxy 175 can proactively manage signaling from the mobiledevice towards the network to mitigate or ease congestion at thenetwork, and prevent the congestion at the network from reaching acritical level whereby the network operator is forced to blindly rejectmobile devices attempting to connect to the network.

With respect to the battery life of the mobile device 150, by servingapplication or content requests from the local cache 185, the localproxy 175 can reduce the number of times the radio module is powered up.The local proxy 175 and the proxy server 125 can work in conjunction toaccumulate low priority data and send it in batches to reduce the numberof times and/or amount of time when the radio is powered up. The localproxy 175 can synchronize the network use by performing the batched datatransfer for all connections simultaneously. Furthermore, by preventingthe mobile device from constantly attempting to signal the network thatis congested, and/or allowing selective (e.g., high priority traffic)towards the network, the local proxy 175 can conserve battery resourcesof the mobile device.

FIG. 1D illustrates an example diagram of the logical architecture of adistributed proxy and cache system. The distributed system can include,for example the following components:

Client Side Proxy 175: a component installed in a smartphone, mobiledevice or wireless device 150 that interfaces with device's operatingsystem, as well as with data services and applications installed in thedevice. The client side proxy 175 is typically compliant with and ableto operate with standard or state of the art networking protocols.Additional components and features of the client-side proxy 175 areillustrated with further references to the examples of FIG. 2A.

The server side proxy 125 can include one or more servers that caninterface with third party application servers (e.g., 199), mobileoperator's network (which can be proxy 199 or an additional server thatis not illustrated) and/or the client side proxy 175. In general, theserver side proxy 125 can be compliant with and is generally able tooperate with standard or state of the art networking protocols and/orspecifications for interacting with mobile network elements and/or thirdparty servers. Some components and features of the server-side proxy 125are illustrated with further references to the examples of FIG. 1F andFIG. 2D.

Log Storage and Processing Service (LSPS) 174: The log storage andprocessing service, server, system or component 174 can providereporting and usage analytics services. The LSPS 174 can collectinformation (e.g., logs) from the client side 175 and/or the server side125 and provide the necessary tools for producing reports and usageanalytics can be used for analyzing traffic and signaling data. Theclient logs (e.g., logs on the client device 150 aggregated by the localproxy 175) are stored in the device until a data channel is activated,and then are transferred in binary format to the LSPS 174. In oneembodiment, the logs are processed using log processing tools providedby the LSPS 174. The processed logs are subsequently stored in adistributed database. The logs may be used for reporting as well as fortroubleshooting issues. For example, analytics from the logs can be usedby the proxy system in managing, reducing or optimizing network trafficor by the network operator in monitoring their networks for possibleimprovements and enhancements. Note that LSPS 174 as illustrated, may bea server separate from the server-side proxy 125, or it may be acomponent of the server-side proxy 125, residing partially or whollytherein.

In one implementation, the level of logging (e.g., types of data to belogged, and the like) can be specified using configuration settings inthe client-side proxy 175 and/or the server-side proxy 125. Various datarelating to bytes and transactions, network connectivity, power,subscriber count, and the like may be logged, and/or processed usingdefault (or another) settings on a periodic (e.g., hourly, daily, andthe like) basis.

Bytes and Transactions data may include a number of bytes transacted(both to and from), total number of transactions between the client-sideproxy 175 and each application, the client-side proxy 175 and thenetwork (e.g., radio access network 112), the client-side proxy 175 andits cache, and the like. Network Connectivity data may include, forexample, total time the device spends in “data connected” state (basedon a two-state connectivity model), total number of transitions into thedata connected state, the number of times the radio transitions into thedata connected state due to a network request that was proxied throughthe client-side proxy 175, total time spent in the data connected statedue to a network request that was proxied through the client-side proxy175 the number of transitions into data connected mode saved by theclient-side and/or server-side proxy system, the amount of time in dataconnected state saved by the client-side and/or server-side proxysystem, simulated values for the previous four items, as if trafficproxied via client-side and/or server-side proxy system were the onlytraffic on the device. Network connectivity data can also include theamount of time taken to transition from an idle state to connected state(i.e., setup time), a baseline or a reference determined from a sampleof setup times, and the like. Power related data may include, forexample, each one-percent (or any other percentage value) change in thebattery level, the total time the device is powered on but not connectedto a power source, and the like. Subscriber count data may include, forexample, the number of new subscribers observed in a period and thenumber of active subscribers in the period. This data may be aggregatedby the host server, for example. Reporting of the above data can be donebased on variables such as network bearer type (e.g., all, mobile orWi-Fi), category (e.g., all, device model or application name), time(e.g., hour, day or month), and the like, or combinations thereof.

FIG. 1E illustrates an example diagram showing the architecture ofclient-side components in a distributed proxy and cache system,including a congestion detector or recognizer.

The client side proxy components 175 can include software components oragents installed on the mobile device that enables traffic optimizationand performs the related functionalities on the client side. Componentsof the client side proxy 175 can operate transparently for end users andapplications 163, and interface with the device's operating system (OS)162. The client side proxy 175 can be installed on mobile devices foroptimization to take place, and it can effectuate changes on the dataroutes and/or timing. Once data routing is modified, the client sideproxy 175 can respond to application requests to service providers orhost servers, in addition to or instead of letting those applications163 access data network directly. In general, applications 163 on themobile device will not notice that the client side proxy 175 isresponding to their requests.

Some example components of the client side proxy 175 are described asfollows:

Device State Monitor 121: The device state monitor 121 can beresponsible for identifying several states and metrics in the device,such as network status, display status, battery level (e.g., via theradio/battery information 161), etc., such that the remaining componentsin the client side proxy 175 can operate and make decisions according todevice state, acting in an optimal way in each state.

Traffic Recognizer 122: The traffic recognizer 122 analyzes all trafficbetween the wireless device applications 163 and their respective hostservers in order to identify recurrent patterns. Supported transportprotocols include, for example, DNS, HTTP and HTTPS, such that trafficthrough those ports is directed to the client side proxy 175. Whileanalyzing traffic, the client side proxy 175 can identify recurringpolling patterns which can be candidates to be performed remotely by theserver side proxy 125, and send to the protocol optimizer 123.

Protocol Optimizer 123: The protocol optimizer 123 can implement thelogic of serving recurrent request from the local cache 185 instead ofallowing those request go over the network to the serviceprovider/application host server. One of its tasks is to eliminate orminimize the need to send requests to the network, positively affectingnetwork congestion and device battery life.

Local Cache 185: The local cache 185 can store responses to recurrentrequests, and can be used by the Protocol Optimizer 123 to sendresponses to the applications 163.

Traffic Scheduler 124: The traffic scheduler 124 can temporally movecommunications to optimize usage of device resources by unifyingkeep-alive signaling so that some or all of the different applications163 can send keep-alive messages at the same time (traffic pipelining).Traffic scheduler 124 may also decide to delay transmission of data thatis not relevant at a given time (for example, when the device is notactively used).

Policy Manager 125: The policy manager 125 can store and enforce trafficoptimization and reporting policies provisioned by a Policy ManagementServer (PMS) 143. At the client side proxy 175 first start, trafficoptimization and reporting policies (policy profiles) that is to beenforced in a particular device can be provisioned by the PolicyManagement Server. Enforcing traffic management policies at the device'sIP later lets an operator manage traffic before it uses radio accessednetwork resources. Policy usage can range from creating highly targetedsubscriber plans to proactively and/or reactively managing networkcongestion. In one implementation, the conditions for selecting a policyfor enforcement, and/or conditions for dropping an implemented policymay be managed or coordinated by the policy manager 125.

Watch Dog 127: The watch dog 127 can monitor the client side proxy 175operating availability. In case the client side proxy 175 is not workingdue to a failure or because it has been disabled, the watchdog 127 canreset DNS routing rules information and can restore original DNSsettings for the device to continue working until the client side proxy175 service is restored.

Reporting Agent 126: The reporting agent 126 can gather information(e.g., logs) about the events taking place in the device and sends theinformation to the log storage and processing service 174, whichcollects and stores client-side and/or server-side proxy system logs.Event details are stored temporarily in the device and transferred tolog storage and processing service 174 only when the data channel stateis active. If the client side proxy 175 does not send records within aperiod of time (e.g., twenty-four hours), the reporting agent 126 may,in one embodiment, attempt to open the connection and send recordedentries or, in case there are no entries in storage, an empty reportingpacket. All reporting settings may be configured in the policymanagement server. The information in the logs may be used for reportingand/or troubleshooting, for example.

Push Client 128: The push client 128 can be responsible for the trafficto between the server side proxy 125 and the client side proxy 175. Thepush client 128 can send out service requests like content updaterequests and policy update requests, and receives updates to thoserequests from the server side proxy 125. In addition, push client 128can send data to a log storage and processing service 174, which may beinternal to or external to the server side proxy 125.

The proxy server 199 has a wide variety of uses, from speeding up a webserver by caching repeated requests, to caching web, DNS and othernetwork lookups for a group of clients sharing network resources. Theproxy server 199 is optional. The distributed proxy and cache system(125 and/or 175) allows for a flexible proxy configuration using eitherthe proxy 199, additional proxy(s) in operator's network, or integratingboth proxies 199 and an operator's or other third-party's proxy.

FIG. 1F illustrates a diagram of the example components on the serverside of the distributed proxy and cache system.

The server side 125 of the distributed system can include, for example arelay server 142, which interacts with a traffic harmonizer 144, apolling server 145 and/or a policy management server 143. Each of thevarious components can communicate with the client side proxy 175, orother third party (e.g., application server/service provider 110 and/orother proxy 199) and/or a reporting and usage analytics system. Someexample components of the server side proxy 125 is described as follows:

Relay Server 142: The relay server 142 is the routing agent in thedistributed proxy architecture. The relay server 142 manages connectionsand communications with components on the client-side proxy 175installed on devices and provides an administrative interface forreports (e.g., congestion reports), provisioning, platform setup, and soon.

Notification Server 141: The notification server 141 is a module able toconnect to an operator's SMSC gateways and deliver SMS notifications tothe client-side proxy 175. SMS notifications can be used when an IP linkis not currently active, in order to avoid the client-side proxy 175from activating a connection over the wireless data channel, thusavoiding additional signaling traffic. However, if the IP connectionhappens to be open for some other traffic, the notification server 141can use it for sending the notifications to the client-side proxy 175.The user database can store operational data including endpoint(MSISDN), organization and Notification server 141 gateway for eachresource (URIs or URLs).

Traffic Harmonizer 144: The traffic harmonizer 144 can be responsiblefor communication between the client-side proxy 175 and the pollingserver 145. The traffic harmonizer 144 connects to the polling server145 directly or through the data storage 130, and to the client over anyopen or proprietary protocol such as the 7TP, implemented for trafficoptimization. The traffic harmonizer 144 can be also responsible fortraffic pipelining on the server side: if there's cached content in thedatabase for the same client, this can be sent over to the client in onemessage.

Polling Server 145: The polling server 145 can poll third partyapplication servers on behalf of applications that are being optimized.If a change occurs (i.e. new data available) for an application, thepolling server 145 can report to the traffic harmonizer 144 which inturn sends a notification message to the client-side proxy 175 for it toclear the cache and allow application to poll application serverdirectly.

Packet Call Quality Agent 133: The Packet call quality agent 133 canproactively identify weakness areas and poor packet access in a wirelessnetwork. Packet call quality agent 133 can utilize the reports generatedby the congestion recognizer 164 on the mobile device (e.g., via a localproxy) as illustrated in FIG. 2A to facilitate an operator toproactively identify weakness areas and poor packet access in a wirelessnetwork, then translate and map them into operator's cell identifiersand location area codes. This can allow operator to plan their networkmaintenance and upgrades according to near real time feedback from realsubscriber devices. This can then make troubleshooting issues for anoperator faster and cheaper.

Policy Management Server 143: The policy management server (PMS) 143allows administrators to configure and store policies for theclient-side proxies 175 (device clients). It also allows administratorsto notify the client-side proxies 175 about policy changes. Using thepolicy management server 143, each operator can configure the policiesto work in the most efficient way for the unique characteristics of eachparticular mobile operator's network.

Log Storage and Processing Service 174: The log storage and processingservice 174 collects information (e.g., logs) from the client side 175and/or from the server side 125, and provides the tools for analyzingand producing reports and usage analytics that operators can use foranalyzing application signaling, data consumption, congestion, and thelike.

FIG. 2A illustrates a block diagram depicting an example of client-sidecomponents in a distributed proxy and cache system, further including acongestion detector or recognizer 164.

A device 250, which can be a portable or mobile device (e.g., anywireless device), such as a portable phone, generally includes, forexample, a network interface 208, an operating system 204, a context API206, and mobile applications which may be proxy-unaware 210 orproxy-aware 220. Note that the device 250 is specifically illustrated inthe example of FIG. 2A as a mobile device, such is not a limitation andthat device 250 may be any wireless, broadband, portable/mobile ornon-portable device able to receive, transmit signals to satisfy datarequests over a network including wired or wireless networks (e.g.,WiFi, cellular, Bluetooth, LAN, WAN, and the like).

The network interface 208 can be a networking module that enables thedevice 250 to mediate data in a network with an entity that is externalto the host server 250, through any known and/or convenientcommunications protocol supported by the host and the external entity.The network interface 208 can include one or more of a network adaptorcard, a wireless network interface card (e.g., SMS interface, WiFiinterface, interfaces for various generations of mobile communicationstandards including but not limited to 2G, 3G, 3.5G, 4G, LTE, and thelike), Bluetooth, or whether or not the connection is via a router, anaccess point, a wireless router, a switch, a multilayer switch, aprotocol converter, a gateway, a bridge, a bridge router, a hub, adigital media receiver, and/or a repeater.

Device 250 can further include, client-side components of thedistributed proxy and cache system which can include, a local proxy 275(e.g., a mobile client of a mobile device) and a cache 285. In oneembodiment, the local proxy 275 includes a user activity module 215, aproxy API 225, a request/transaction manager 235, a caching policymanager 245 having an application protocol module 248, a traffic shapingengine 255, and/or a connection manager 265. The traffic shaping engine255 may further include an alignment module 256 and/or a batching module257, the connection manager 265 may further include a radio controller266 and a heartbeat manager 267. The request/transaction manager 235 canfurther include an application behavior detector 236 and/or aprioritization engine 241, the application behavior detector 236 mayfurther include a pattern detector 237 and/or and application profilegenerator 239. Device 250 can also include a congestiondetector/recognizer 164 and a blocking policy enforcer 178. Additionalor less components/modules/engines can be included in the local proxy275 and each illustrated component.

As used herein, a “module,” “a manager,” a “handler,” a “detector,” an“interface,” a “controller,” a “normalizer,” a “generator,” an“invalidator,” or an “engine” includes a general purpose, dedicated orshared processor and, typically, firmware or software modules that areexecuted by the processor. Depending upon implementation-specific orother considerations, the module, manager, handler, detector, interface,controller, normalizer, generator, invalidator, or engine can becentralized or its functionality distributed. The module, manager,handler, detector, interface, controller, normalizer, generator,invalidator, or engine can include general or special purpose hardware,firmware, or software embodied in a computer-readable (storage) mediumfor execution by the processor.

As used herein, a computer-readable medium or computer-readable storagemedium is intended to include all mediums that are statutory (e.g., inthe United States, under 35 U.S.C. 101), and to specifically exclude allmediums that are non-statutory in nature to the extent that theexclusion is necessary for a claim that includes the computer-readable(storage) medium to be valid. Known statutory computer-readable mediumsinclude hardware (e.g., registers, random access memory (RAM),non-volatile (NV) storage, to name a few), but may or may not be limitedto hardware.

In one embodiment, a portion of the distributed proxy and cache systemfor network traffic management resides in or is in communication withdevice 250, including local proxy 275 (mobile client) and/or cache 285.The local proxy 275 can provide an interface on the device 250 for usersto access device applications and services including email, IM,voicemail, visual voicemail, feeds, Internet, games, productivity tools,or other applications, etc.

The proxy 275 is generally application independent and can be used byapplications (e.g., both proxy-unaware and proxy-aware mobileapplications 210 and 220 and other mobile applications) to open TCPconnections to a remote server (e.g., the server 100 in the examples ofFIG. 1B-1C and/or server proxy 125 shown in the examples of FIG. 1B. Insome instances, the local proxy 275 includes a proxy API 225 which canbe optionally used to interface with proxy-aware applications 220 (orapplications (e.g., mobile applications) on a mobile device (e.g., anywireless device)).

The applications 210 and 220 can generally include any user application,widgets, software, HTTP-based application, web browsers, video or othermultimedia streaming or downloading application, video games, socialnetwork applications, email clients, RSS management applications,application stores, document management applications, productivityenhancement applications, and the like. The applications can be providedwith the device OS, by the device manufacturer, by the network serviceprovider, downloaded by the user, or provided by others.

One embodiment of the local proxy 275 includes or is coupled to acontext API 206, as shown. The context API 206 may be a part of theoperating system 204 or device platform or independent of the operatingsystem 204, as illustrated. The operating system 204 can include anyoperating system including but not limited to, any previous, current,and/or future versions/releases of, Windows Mobile, iOS, Android,Symbian, Palm OS, Brew MP, Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME), Blackberry, etc.

The context API 206 may be a plug-in to the operating system 204 or aparticular client/application on the device 250. The context API 206 candetect signals indicative of user or device activity, for example,sensing motion, gesture, device location, changes in device location,device backlight, keystrokes, clicks, activated touch screen, mouseclick or detection of other pointer devices. The context API 206 can becoupled to input devices or sensors on the device 250 to identify thesesignals. Such signals can generally include input received in responseto explicit user input at an input device/mechanism at the device 250and/or collected from ambient signals/contextual cues detected at or inthe vicinity of the device 250 (e.g., light, motion, piezoelectric,etc.).

In one embodiment, the user activity module 215 interacts with thecontext API 206 to identify, determine, infer, detect, compute, predict,and/or anticipate, characteristics of user activity on the device 250.Various inputs collected by the context API 206 can be aggregated by theuser activity module 215 to generate a profile for characteristics ofuser activity. Such a profile can be generated by the user activitymodule 215 with various temporal characteristics. For instance, useractivity profile can be generated in real-time for a given instant toprovide a view of what the user is doing or not doing at a given time(e.g., defined by a time window, in the last minute, in the last 30seconds, etc.), a user activity profile can also be generated for a‘session’ defined by an application or web page that describes thecharacteristics of user behavior with respect to a specific task theyare engaged in on the device 250, or for a specific time period (e.g.,for the last 2 hours, for the last 5 hours).

Additionally, characteristic profiles can be generated by the useractivity module 215 to depict a historical trend for user activity andbehavior (e.g., 1 week, 1 mo., 2 mo., etc.). Such historical profilescan also be used to deduce trends of user behavior, for example, accessfrequency at different times of day, trends for certain days of the week(weekends or week days), user activity trends based on location data(e.g., IP address, GPS, or cell tower coordinate data) or changes inlocation data (e.g., user activity based on user location, or useractivity based on whether the user is on the go, or traveling outside ahome region, etc.) to obtain user activity characteristics.

In one embodiment, user activity module 215 can detect and track useractivity with respect to applications, documents, files, windows, icons,and folders on the device 250. For example, the user activity module 215can detect when an application or window (e.g., a web browser or anyother type of application) has been exited, closed, minimized,maximized, opened, moved into the foreground, or into the background,multimedia content playback, etc.

In one embodiment, characteristics of the user activity on the device250 can be used to locally adjust behavior of the device (e.g., mobiledevice or any wireless device) to optimize its resource consumption suchas battery/power consumption and more generally, consumption of otherdevice resources including memory, storage, and processing power, and/orfurther optimize signaling in the network. In one embodiment, the use ofa radio on a device can be adjusted based on characteristics of userbehavior (e.g., by the radio controller 266 of the connection manager265) coupled to the user activity module 215. For example, the radiocontroller 266 can turn the radio on or off, based on characteristics ofthe user activity on the device 250. In addition, the radio controller266 can adjust the power mode of the radio (e.g., to be in a higherpower mode or lower power mode) depending on characteristics of useractivity.

In one embodiment, characteristics of the user activity on device 250can also be used to cause another device (e.g., other computers, amobile device, a wireless device, or a non-portable device) or server(e.g., host server 100 in the examples of FIGS. 1B-1C) which cancommunicate (e.g., via a cellular or other network) with the device 250to modify its communication frequency with the device 250. The localproxy 275 can use the characteristics information of user behaviordetermined by the user activity module 215 to instruct the remote deviceas to how to modulate its communication frequency (e.g., decreasingcommunication frequency, such as data push frequency if the user isidle, requesting that the remote device notify the device 250 if newdata, changed, data, or data of a certain level of importance becomesavailable, etc.).

In one embodiment, the user activity module 215 can, in response todetermining that user activity characteristics indicate that a user isactive after a period of inactivity, request that a remote device (e.g.,server host server 100 in the examples of FIGS. 1B-1C) send the datathat was buffered as a result of the previously decreased communicationfrequency.

In addition, or in alternative, the local proxy 275 can communicate thecharacteristics of user activity at the device 250 to the remote device(e.g., host server 100 in the examples of FIGS. 1B-1C) and the remotedevice determines how to alter its own communication frequency with thedevice 250 for network resource conservation and conservation of device250 resources.

One embodiment of the local proxy 275 further includes arequest/transaction manager 235, which can detect, identify, intercept,process, manage, data requests initiated on the device 250, for example,by applications 210 and/or 220, and/or directly/indirectly by a userrequest. The request/transaction manager 235 can determine how and whento process a given request or transaction, or a set ofrequests/transactions, based on transaction characteristics.

The request/transaction manager 235 can prioritize requests ortransactions made by applications and/or users at the device 250, forexample by the prioritization engine 241. Importance or priority ofrequests/transactions can be determined by the request/transactionmanager 235 by applying a rule set, for example, according to timesensitivity of the transaction, time sensitivity of the content in thetransaction, time criticality of the transaction, time criticality ofthe data transmitted in the transaction, and/or time criticality orimportance of an application making the request.

In addition, transaction characteristics can also depend on whether thetransaction was a result of user-interaction or other user-initiatedaction on the device (e.g., user interaction with an application (e.g.,a mobile application)). In general, a time critical transaction caninclude a transaction resulting from a user-initiated data transfer, andcan be prioritized as such. Transaction characteristics can also dependon the amount of data that will be transferred or is anticipated to betransferred as a result of the requested transaction. For example, theconnection manager 265, can adjust the radio mode (e.g., high power orlow power mode via the radio controller 266) based on the amount of datathat will need to be transferred.

In addition, the radio controller 266 connection manager 265 can adjustthe radio power mode (high or low) based on time criticality/sensitivityof the transaction. The radio controller 266 can trigger the use of highpower radio mode when a time-critical transaction (e.g., a transactionresulting from a user-initiated data transfer, an application running inthe foreground, any other event meeting a certain criteria) is initiatedor detected.

In general, the priorities can be set by default, for example, based ondevice platform, device manufacturer, operating system, etc. Prioritiescan alternatively or in additionally be set by the particularapplication; for example, the Facebook application (e.g., a mobileapplication) can set its own priorities for various transactions (e.g.,a status update can be of higher priority than an add friend request ora poke request, a message send request can be of higher priority than amessage delete request, for example), an email client or IM chat clientmay have its own configurations for priority. The prioritization engine241 may include set of rules for assigning priority.

The prioritization engine 241 can also track network providerlimitations or specifications on application or transaction priority indetermining an overall priority status for a request/transaction.Furthermore, priority can in part or in whole be determined by userpreferences, either explicit or implicit. A user, can in general, setpriorities at different tiers, such as, specific priorities forsessions, or types, or applications (e.g., a browsing session, a gamingsession, versus an IM chat session, the user may set a gaming session toalways have higher priority than an IM chat session, which may havehigher priority than web-browsing session). A user can setapplication-specific priorities, (e.g., a user may set Facebook-relatedtransactions to have a higher priority than LinkedIn-relatedtransactions), for specific transaction types (e.g., for all sendmessage requests across all applications to have higher priority thanmessage delete requests, for all calendar-related events to have a highpriority, etc.), and/or for specific folders.

The prioritization engine 241 can track and resolve conflicts inpriorities set by different entities. For example, manual settingsspecified by the user may take precedence over device OS settings,network provider parameters/limitations (e.g., set in default for anetwork service area, geographic locale, set for a specific time of day,or set based on service/fee type) may limit any user-specified settingsand/or application-set priorities. In some instances, a manualsynchronization request received from a user can override some, most, orall priority settings in that the requested synchronization is performedwhen requested, regardless of the individually assigned priority or anoverall priority ranking for the requested action.

Priority can be specified and tracked internally in any known and/orconvenient manner, including but not limited to, a binaryrepresentation, a multi-valued representation, a graded representationand all are considered to be within the scope of the disclosedtechnology.

TABLE I Change Change (initiated on device) Priority (initiated onserver) Priority Send email High Receive email High Delete email LowEdit email Often not (Un)read email Low possible to sync (Low ifpossible) Move message Low New email in deleted items Low Read more HighDownload High Delete an email Low attachment (Un)Read an email Low NewCalendar event High Move messages Low Edit/change Calendar High Anycalendar change High event Any contact change High Add a contact HighWipe/lock device High Edit a contact High Settings change High Searchcontacts High Any folder change High Change a setting High Connectorrestart High Manual send/receive High (if no changes nothing is sent) IMstatus change Medium Social Network Status Medium Updates Auction outbidor change High Severe Weather Alerts High notification Weather UpdatesLow News Updates Low

Table I above shows, for illustration purposes, some examples oftransactions with examples of assigned priorities in a binaryrepresentation scheme. Additional assignments are possible foradditional types of events, requests, transactions, and as previouslydescribed, priority assignments can be made at more or less granularlevels, e.g., at the session level or at the application level, etc.

As shown by way of example in the above table, in general, lowerpriority requests/transactions can include, updating message status asbeing read, unread, deleting of messages, deletion of contacts; higherpriority requests/transactions, can in some instances include, statusupdates, new IM chat message, new email, calendar eventupdate/cancellation/deletion, an event in a mobile gaming session, orother entertainment related events, a purchase confirmation through aweb purchase or online, request to load additional or download content,contact book related events, a transaction to change a device setting,location-aware or location-based events/transactions, or any otherevents/request/transactions initiated by a user or where the user isknown to be, expected to be, or suspected to be waiting for a response,etc.

Inbox pruning events (e.g., email, or any other types of messages), aregenerally considered low priority and absent other impending events,generally will not trigger use of the radio on the device 250.Specifically, pruning events to remove old email or other content can be‘piggy backed’ with other communications if the radio is not otherwiseon, at the time of a scheduled pruning event. For example, if the userhas preferences set to ‘keep messages for 7 days old,’ then instead ofpowering on the device radio to initiate a message delete from thedevice 250 the moment that the message has exceeded 7 days old, themessage is deleted when the radio is powered on next. If the radio isalready on, then pruning may occur as regularly scheduled.

The request/transaction manager 235, can use the priorities for requests(e.g., by the prioritization engine 241) to manage outgoing traffic fromthe device 250 for resource optimization (e.g., to utilize the deviceradio more efficiently for battery conservation). For example,transactions/requests below a certain priority ranking may not triggeruse of the radio on the device 250 if the radio is not already switchedon, as controlled by the connection manager 265. In contrast, the radiocontroller 266 can turn on the radio such a request can be sent when arequest for a transaction is detected to be over a certain prioritylevel.

In one embodiment, priority assignments (such as that determined by thelocal proxy 275 or another device/entity) can be used cause a remotedevice to modify its communication with the frequency with the mobiledevice or wireless device. For example, the remote device can beconfigured to send notifications to the device 250 when data of higherimportance is available to be sent to the mobile device or wirelessdevice.

In one embodiment, transaction priority can be used in conjunction withcharacteristics of user activity in shaping or managing traffic, forexample, by the traffic shaping engine 255. For example, the trafficshaping engine 255 can, in response to detecting that a user is dormantor inactive, wait to send low priority transactions from the device 250,for a period of time. In addition, the traffic shaping engine 255 canallow multiple low priority transactions to accumulate for batchtransferring from the device 250 (e.g., via the batching module 257). Inone embodiment, the priorities can be set, configured, or readjusted bya user. For example, content depicted in Table I in the same or similarform can be accessible in a user interface on the device 250 and forexample, used by the user to adjust or view the priorities.

The batching module 257 can initiate batch transfer based on certaincriteria. For example, batch transfer (e.g., of multiple occurrences ofevents, some of which occurred at different instances in time) may occurafter a certain number of low priority events have been detected, orafter an amount of time elapsed after the first of the low priorityevent was initiated. In addition, the batching module 257 can initiatebatch transfer of the cumulated low priority events when a higherpriority event is initiated or detected at the device 250. Batchtransfer can otherwise be initiated when radio use is triggered foranother reason (e.g., to receive data from a remote device such as hostserver 100 or 300). In one embodiment, an impending pruning event(pruning of an inbox), or any other low priority events, can be executedwhen a batch transfer occurs.

In general, the batching capability can be disabled or enabled at theevent/transaction level, application level, or session level, based onany one or combination of the following: user configuration, devicelimitations/settings, manufacturer specification, network providerparameters/limitations, platform-specific limitations/settings, deviceOS settings, etc. In one embodiment, batch transfer can be initiatedwhen an application/window/file is closed out, exited, or moved into thebackground; users can optionally be prompted before initiating a batchtransfer; users can also manually trigger batch transfers.

In one embodiment, the local proxy 275 locally adjusts radio use on thedevice 250 by caching data in the cache 285. When requests ortransactions from the device 250 can be satisfied by content stored inthe cache 285, the radio controller 266 need not activate the radio tosend the request to a remote entity (e.g., the host server 100, 300, asshown in FIG. 1B or a content provider/application server such as theserver/provider 110 shown in the examples of FIGS. 1B-1C). As such, thelocal proxy 275 can use the local cache 285 and the cache policy manager245 to locally store data for satisfying data requests to eliminate orreduce the use of the device radio for conservation of network resourcesand device battery consumption.

In leveraging the local cache, once the request/transaction manager 225intercepts a data request by an application on the device 250, the localrepository 285 can be queried to determine if there is any locallystored response, and also determine whether the response is valid. Whena valid response is available in the local cache 285, the response canbe provided to the application on the device 250 without the device 250needing to access the cellular network or wireless broadband network.

If a valid response is not available, the local proxy 275 can query aremote proxy (e.g., the server proxy 125 of FIGS. 1C-1D, 1F) todetermine whether a remotely stored response is valid. If so, theremotely stored response (e.g., which may be stored on the server cache135 or optional caching server 199 shown in the example of FIG. 1C) canbe provided to the mobile device, possibly without the mobile device 250needing to access the cellular network, thus relieving consumption ofnetwork resources.

If a valid cache response is not available, or if cache responses areunavailable for the intercepted data request, the local proxy 275, forexample, the caching policy manager 245, can send the data request to aremote proxy (e.g., server proxy 125 of FIG. 1C) which forwards the datarequest to a content source (e.g., application server/content provider110 of FIG. 1C) and a response from the content source can be providedthrough the remote proxy, as will be further described in thedescription associated with the example host server 100 of FIG. 1C. Thecache policy manager 245 can manage or process requests that use avariety of protocols, including but not limited to HTTP, HTTPS, IMAP,POP, SMTP, XMPP, and/or ActiveSync. The caching policy manager 245 canlocally store responses for data requests in the local database 285 ascache entries, for subsequent use in satisfying same or similar datarequests.

The caching policy manager 245 can request that the remote proxy monitorresponses for the data request and the remote proxy can notify thedevice 250 when an unexpected response to the data request is detected.In such an event, the cache policy manager 245 can erase or replace thelocally stored response(s) on the device 250 when notified of theunexpected response (e.g., new data, changed data, additional data,etc.) to the data request. In one embodiment, the caching policy manager245 is able to detect or identify the protocol used for a specificrequest, including but not limited to HTTP, HTTPS, IMAP, POP, SMTP,XMPP, and/or ActiveSync. In one embodiment, application specifichandlers (e.g., via the application protocol module 246 of the cachingpolicy manager 245) on the local proxy 275 allows for optimization ofany protocol that can be port mapped to a handler in the distributedproxy (e.g., port mapped on the proxy server 125 in the example of FIG.1C).

In one embodiment, the local proxy 275 notifies the remote proxy suchthat the remote proxy can monitor responses received for the datarequest from the content source for changed results prior to returningthe result to the device 250, for example, when the data request to thecontent source has yielded same results to be returned to the mobiledevice. In general, the local proxy 275 can simulate application serverresponses for applications on the device 250, using locally cachedcontent. This can prevent utilization of the cellular network fortransactions where new/changed data is not available, thus freeing upnetwork resources and preventing network congestion.

In one embodiment, the local proxy 275 includes an application behaviordetector 236 to track, detect, observe, monitor, applications (e.g.,proxy-unaware and/or aware applications 210 and 220) accessed orinstalled on the device 250. Application behaviors, or patterns indetected behaviors (e.g., via the pattern detector 237) of one or moreapplications accessed on the device 250 can be used by the local proxy275 to optimize traffic in a wireless network needed to satisfy the dataneeds of these applications.

For example, based on detected behavior of multiple applications, thetraffic shaping engine 255 can align content requests made by at leastsome of the applications over the network (wireless network) (e.g., viathe alignment module 256). The alignment module 256 can delay orexpedite some earlier received requests to achieve alignment. Whenrequests are aligned, the traffic shaping engine 255 can utilize theconnection manager to poll over the network to satisfy application datarequests. Content requests for multiple applications can be alignedbased on behavior patterns or rules/settings including, for example,content types requested by the multiple applications (audio, video,text, etc.), device (e.g., mobile or wireless device) parameters, and/ornetwork parameters/traffic conditions, network service providerconstraints/specifications, etc.

In one embodiment, the pattern detector 237 can detect recurrences inapplication requests made by the multiple applications, for example, bytracking patterns in application behavior. A tracked pattern caninclude, detecting that certain applications, as a background process,poll an application server regularly, at certain times of day, oncertain days of the week, periodically in a predictable fashion, with acertain frequency, with a certain frequency in response to a certaintype of event, in response to a certain type user query, frequency thatrequested content is the same, frequency with which a same request ismade, interval between requests, applications making a request, or anycombination of the above, for example.

Such recurrences can be used by traffic shaping engine 255 to offloadpolling of content from a content source (e.g., from an applicationserver/content provider 110 of FIG. 1A) that would result from theapplication requests that would be performed at the mobile device orwireless device 250 to be performed instead, by a proxy server (e.g.,proxy server 125 of FIG. 1C) remote from the device 250. Traffic shapingengine 255 can decide to offload the polling when the recurrences matcha rule. For example, there are multiple occurrences or requests for thesame resource that have exactly the same content, or returned value, orbased on detection of repeatable time periods between requests andresponses such as a resource that is requested at specific times duringthe day. The offloading of the polling can decrease the amount ofbandwidth consumption needed by the mobile device 250 to establish awireless (cellular or other wireless broadband) connection with thecontent source for repetitive content polls.

As a result of the offloading of the polling, locally cached contentstored in the local cache 285 can be provided to satisfy data requestsat the device 250, when content change is not detected in the polling ofthe content sources. As such, when data has not changed, applicationdata needs can be satisfied without needing to enable radio use oroccupying cellular bandwidth in a wireless network. When data haschanged and/or new data has been received, the remote entity (e.g., thehost server) to which polling is offloaded, can notify the device 250.

In one embodiment, the local proxy 275 can mitigate the need/use ofperiodic keep-alive messages (heartbeat messages) to maintain TCP/IPconnections, which can consume significant amounts of power thus havingdetrimental impacts on mobile device battery life. The connectionmanager 265 in the local proxy (e.g., the heartbeat manager 267) candetect, identify, and intercept any or all heartbeat (keep-alive)messages being sent from applications.

The heartbeat manager 267 can prevent any or all of these heartbeatmessages from being sent over the cellular, or other network, andinstead rely on the server component of the distributed proxy system(e.g., shown in FIG. 1C) to generate and send the heartbeat messages tomaintain a connection with the backend (e.g., applicationserver/provider 110 in the example of FIG. 1B).

The local proxy 275 generally represents any one or a portion of thefunctions described for the individual managers, modules, and/orengines. The local proxy 275 and device 250 can include additional orless components; more or less functions can be included, in whole or inpart, without deviating from the novel art of the disclosure.

FIG. 2B illustrates a block diagram illustrating additional componentsin the congestion detector or recognizer shown in the example of FIG.2A.

The congestion recognizer 164 can detect congestion in the network basedon increase in setup times experienced by the mobile device inattempting to connect to a network, and further confirm that theincrease in setup times is due to congestion, and for no other reasons(e.g., operator or network equipment specific). In one embodiment, thecongestion recognizer 164 includes a congestion recognitionconfiguration engine 270, a setup time calculator 276, a radio statedetector 277, a congestion data logger 290, a congestion reporting agent292 and a congestion detection engine 280 having an initial setup timestack manager 282, a temporary setup time stack manager 281, a baselinesetup time calculator 283, a potential congestion case detector 284, aconfirmed congestion case detector 286 having a reception qualityanalyzer 287 and a data connection rejection query module 288 and afinal congestion case detector 289 having a congestion pattern detector290. More or less components may be included in the congestionrecognizer 164 in some other embodiments.

As used herein, a “module,” “a manager,” a “handler,” a “detector,” an“interface,” a “controller,” a “normalizer,” a “generator,” an“invalidator,” a “calculator,” a “logger,” an “analyzer,” an “agent,” oran “engine” includes a general purpose, dedicated or shared processorand, typically, firmware or software modules that are executed by theprocessor. Depending upon implementation-specific or otherconsiderations, the module, manager, handler, detector, interface,controller, normalizer, generator, invalidator, or engine can becentralized or its functionality distributed. The module, manager,handler, detector, interface, controller, normalizer, generator,invalidator, calculator, logger, analyzer, agent or engine can includegeneral or special purpose hardware, firmware, or software embodied in acomputer-readable (storage) medium for execution by the processor.

As used herein, a computer-readable medium or computer-readable storagemedium is intended to include all mediums that are statutory (e.g., inthe United States, under 35 U.S.C. 101), and to specifically exclude allmediums that are non-statutory in nature to the extent that theexclusion is necessary for a claim that includes the computer-readable(storage) medium to be valid. Known statutory computer-readable mediumsinclude hardware (e.g., registers, random access memory (RAM),non-volatile (NV) storage, to name a few), but may or may not be limitedto hardware.

The congestion recognition configuration engine 270 configures thecongestion recognizer 164 based on various settings and/or parameters.The settings and/or parameters may impact how aggressively congestion isrecognized, the criteria for detecting and verifying that congestion ispresent, and the like. These parameters can be used in detectingpotential congestion state from a sample of setup times, promotingpotential congestion state to confirmed congestion state and triggeringcongestion decision from confirmed congestion state. In oneimplementation, one or more of the settings and/or parameters can beconfigured as a function of time. For example, during peak traffictimes, the congestion recognition can be configured to be moreaggressive.

In one implementation, the congestion recognition configuration engine270 can be used to configure a number of setup time samples (st_stack)to be collected, a setup time standard deviation allowance (st_std),aggressiveness/sensitivity in triggering congestion decision fromconfirmed congestion state (num_ccc), and threshold for triggeringcongestion decision (pcd_trg). When st_stack is defined, a memory forstoring the configured number of setup time samples is then allocated. Alarge sample or stack size adapts to change in setup time more slowlythan a smaller sample or stack size. The setup time standard deviationallowance (st_std) can be used to adjust how aggressively a potentialcongestion state is detected. For example, if the st_std is zero, thelogic is very sensitive to potential congestion. In one implementation,the congestion recognition configuration engine 270 can also configurethe signal strength range for determining whether to convert a potentialcongested state to a confirmed congested state. For example, when thereceived signal code power (RSCP) that denotes the power measured by themobile device on a communication channel, and provides an indication ofsignal strength, is between −105 and −115 dB, the signal strength isdetermined to be low, and a potential congestion state is not convertedto confirmed congestion state, as the increase in setup times may becaused by poor signal strength, poor coverage or poor condition of radiolink, and most likely not due to congestion.

The request/transaction manager 235 (of FIG. 2A) can detect, identify,intercept, process, manage, data requests initiated on the device 250.In one implementation, the request/transaction manager 235 can detect,identify or filter those requests requiring radio connection that aremade when the radio state is idle. The setup time calculator 276 canmeasure the setup time for establishing a connection with a base stationin the radio access network. The setup time is determined or measured asthe time elapsed between detecting of a data request that requires aradio connection (or a radio turn on request) and transition of theradio state to a connected state from idle state in some implementations(i.e., RRC high timestamp—request time stamp during RRC low or idle).The radio state information can be determined or obtained from the radiostate detector 277, for example. In other implementations, the setuptime may be measured based on a radio access bearer setup time, measuredas a time difference between transition to high RRC state timestamp andrequest timestamp. During a radio bearer reconfiguration procedure, aradio bearer reconfiguration message is sent by the network to a mobiledevice, and the mobile device acknowledges receipt of the message bysending a radio bearer reconfiguration complete message to the network.

The initial setup time stack manager 282 of the congestion detectionengine 280 can aggregate a predetermined number of setup time samples(e.g., 20 samples or another number of samples based on st_stack), untilthe stack is full. When the stack is full, the initial setup time stackmanager 282 can activate the logic for detecting potential congestion.

The baseline setup time calculator 283 can be triggered by initial setuptime stack manager 282 to calculate a baseline or reference setup timefrom the sample of setup times collected by the initial setup time stackmanager 282. In one implementation, the baseline is calculated as thesum of the average or mean of the setup times in the initial stack, thestandard deviation of the setup times in the initial stack and the setuptime standard deviation allowance (st_std). The baseline can bedetermined using a variation of the method above, or any otherstatistical method in other implementations. The baseline setup timecalculator 283 can be triggered to update its calculation of baselineevery time a new setup time value is measured by the setup timecalculator module 276.

The potential congestion (PC) case detector 284 can be triggered by theactivation of the congestion detection logic when the initial setup timestack is full. The potential congestion case detector 284 detects apotential case of congestion by detecting an increase in setup timevalues compared to the baseline. The setup time values that are longerthan the baseline are stored in a temporary stack of the same size asthe initial stack by the temporary setup time stack manager 281. Thesetup time values below the baseline replace the oldest values in theinitial stack (via the initial setup time stack manager 282). In oneimplementation, the potential congestion case detector 284 can acquirecell-ID or other base station identifier information and/or locationarea code for each potential congestion case detected. In oneimplementation, the cell-ID and/or location area code may be obtainedusing Attention (AT) commands used for controlling a device modem. Forexample, AT+CREG command returns cell-ID and location area code.

The confirmed congestion case detector 286 can analyze the potentialcongestion cases and determine whether the potential congestion casesshould be promoted to confirmed congestion cases. In order to detectconfirmed congestion cases from potential congestion cases, the modem ofthe mobile device may be queried for reception quality data via thereception quality analyzer 287, for example. In one implementation,using AT+CSQ command, received signal strength indicator (RSSI) value,which can be mapped to signal condition (e.g., marginal, OK, good,excellent or the like), can be determined. Other reception quality datathat can be queried include, for example, received signal code power(RSCP) and ratio of received energy per chip (Ec/Io). In a furtherimplementation, the modem may be queried for any RRC rejection messagesfrom the base station by the data connection rejection query module 288,for example.

The final or positive congestion case detector 289 can evaluate theconfirmed congestion cases using the attached location area codes, cellIDs and other parameters (e.g., num_ccc and pcd_trg) to determine and/orverify whether the network is congested. In one implementation, thecongestion pattern detector 290 can examine the cell-IDs and locationarea codes attached to the confirmed congestion cases to determinewhether the confirmed congestion cases are concentrated on a fewspecific cell-IDs or are distributed over many cell-IDs and/or overmultiple location area codes. This pattern of cell-IDs and/or locationarea codes associated with confirmed congestion cases can provide anindication to the final congestion case detector 289 that the mobiledevice is in motion, and the confirmed congestion cases cannot bereliably used to determine the presence of network congestion. Forexample, if the analysis of the congestion pattern indicates that alarge number of confirmed congestion cases are concentrated on a one ortwo cells, the final congestion case detector 289 can make a positive orfinal congestion decision, and trigger the blocking policy manager 178(shown in FIG. 2A, FIG. 2C). By way of another example, if the patternof the confirmed congestion cases indicates cases associated withmultiple cells belonging to different location area codes, the finalcongestion case detector 289 can determine that the mobile device is inmotion, and a final decision cannot be taken.

The congestion data logger 290 can log select or all data relating tocongestion detection. For example, the congestion data logger 290 canlog data request timestamps, radio turn on timestamps, setup times inassociation with corresponding cell-IDs and location area codes,reception quality measurements (e.g., RSCP, Ec/Io, RSSI, and the like),final congestion detection data (e.g., final congestion detection date,time, cell-IDs, location area code, network operator (e.g., Verizon,AT&T, etc.), and the like), configuration parameters and/or settings,device information, and the like.

The congestion reporting agent 292, in one implementation, can uploadthe logged congestion data to the server-side proxy, the host server,and/or the log storage and processing service. The congestion reportingagent 292 may be configured to generate and send congestion reports tothe LSPS or other remote entities periodically, or whenever a connectionis available. In one implementation, the congestion reporting agent 292can crate congestion reports using one or more templates.

FIG. 2C illustrates a block diagram depicting additional components inthe user activity module, the application behavior detector and theblocking policy manager shown in the example of FIG. 2A.

One embodiment of the local proxy 275 includes the user activity module215, which further includes one or more of, a user activitydetector/tracker 215 a, a user activity prediction engine 215 b, and/ora user expectation manager 215 c. The application behavior detector 236can further include a prioritization engine 241 a, a time criticalitydetection engine 241 b, an application state categorizer 241 c, and/oran application traffic categorizer 241 d. The local proxy 275 canfurther include a backlight detector 219. The blocking policy manager178, in one embodiment, can include one or more of a traffic blockingrules engine 178 a and a blocking policy effective time periodconfiguration module 178 b. One or more rules stored in the rulesdatastore 178 d can be accessed by the blocking policy manager inimplementing a blocking policy on traffic from the mobile device.

In one embodiment, the application behavior detector 236 may detect,determine, identify, or infer, the activity state of an application onthe mobile device 250 from which traffic has originated or is directedto, for example, via the application state categorizer 241 c and/or theapplication traffic categorizer 241 d. The activity state can bedetermined based on whether the application is in a foreground orbackground state on the mobile device (via the application statecategorizer 241 c) since the traffic for a foreground application versusa background application may be handled differently.

In one embodiment, the activity state can be determined, detected,identified, or inferred with a level of certainty of heuristics, basedon the backlight status of the mobile device 250 (e.g., by the backlightdetector 219) or other software agents or hardware sensors on the mobiledevice, including but not limited to, resistive sensors, capacitivesensors, ambient light sensors, motion sensors, touch sensors, and thelike. In general, if the backlight is on, the traffic can be treated asbeing or determined to be generated from an application that is activeor in the foreground, or the traffic is interactive. In addition, if thebacklight is on, the traffic can be treated as being or determined to betraffic from user interaction or user activity, or traffic containingdata that the user is expecting within some time frame.

In one embodiment, the activity state is determined based on whether thetraffic is interactive traffic or maintenance traffic. Interactivetraffic can include transactions from responses and requests generateddirectly from user activity/interaction with an application and caninclude content or data that a user is waiting or expecting to receive.Maintenance traffic may be used to support the functionality of anapplication which is not directly detected by a user. Maintenancetraffic can also include actions or transactions that may take place inresponse to a user action, but the user is not actively waiting for orexpecting a response.

For example, a mail or message delete action at a mobile device 250generates a request to delete the corresponding mail or message at theserver, but the user typically is not waiting for a response. Thus, sucha request may be categorized as maintenance traffic, or traffic having alower priority (e.g., by the prioritization engine 241 a) and/or is nottime-critical (e.g., by the time criticality detection engine 241 b).

Contrastingly, a mail ‘read’ or message ‘read’ request initiated by auser a the mobile device 250, can be categorized as ‘interactivetraffic’ since the user generally is waiting to access content or datawhen they request to read a message or mail. Similarly, such a requestcan be categorized as having higher priority (e.g., by theprioritization engine 241 a) and/or as being time critical/timesensitive (e.g., by the time criticality detection engine 241 b).

The time criticality detection engine 241 b can generally determine,identify, infer the time sensitivity of data contained in traffic sentfrom the mobile device 250 or to the mobile device from a host server(e.g., host 300) or application server (e.g., app server/content source110). For example, time sensitive data can include, status updates,stock information updates, IM presence information, email messages orother messages, actions generated from mobile gaming applications,webpage requests, location updates, etc. Data that is not time sensitiveor time critical, by nature of the content or request, can includerequests to delete messages, mark-as-read or edited actions,application-specific actions such as an add-friend or delete-friendrequest, certain types of messages, or other information which does notfrequently changing by nature, etc. In some instances when the data isnot time critical, the timing with which to allow the traffic to passthrough is set based on when additional data needs to be sent from themobile device 250. For example, traffic shaping engine 255 can align thetraffic with one or more subsequent transactions to be sent together ina single power-on event of the mobile device radio (e.g., using thealignment module 256 and/or the batching module 257). The alignmentmodule 256 can also align polling requests occurring close in timedirected to the same host server, since these requests are likely to beresponded to with the same data.

In the alternate or in combination, the activity state can be determinedfrom assessing, determining, evaluating, inferring, identifying useractivity at the mobile device 250 (e.g., via the user activity module215). For example, user activity can be directly detected and trackedusing the user activity tracker 215 a. The traffic resulting therefromcan then be categorized appropriately for subsequent processing todetermine the policy for handling. Furthermore, user activity can bepredicted or anticipated by the user activity prediction engine 215 b.By predicting user activity or anticipating user activity, the trafficthus occurring after the prediction can be treated as resulting fromuser activity and categorized appropriately to determine thetransmission policy.

In addition, the user activity module 215 can also manage userexpectations (e.g., via the user expectation manager 215 c and/or inconjunction with the activity tracker 215 a and/or the prediction engine215 b) to ensure that traffic is categorized appropriately such thatuser expectations are generally met. For example, a user-initiatedaction should be analyzed (e.g., by the expectation manager 215 c) todetermine or infer whether the user would be waiting for a response. Ifso, such traffic should be handled under a policy such that the userdoes not experience an unpleasant delay in receiving such a response oraction.

In one embodiment, an advanced generation wireless standard network isselected for use in sending traffic between a mobile device and a hostserver in the wireless network based on the activity state of theapplication on the mobile device for which traffic is originated from ordirected to. An advanced technology standards such as the 3G, 3.5G, 3G+,4G, or LTE network can be selected for handling traffic generated as aresult of user interaction, user activity, or traffic containing datathat the user is expecting or waiting for. Advanced generation wirelessstandard network can also be selected for to transmit data contained intraffic directed to the mobile device which responds to foregroundactivities.

In categorizing traffic and defining a transmission policy for mobiletraffic, a network configuration can be selected for use (e.g., by anetwork configuration selection engine) on the mobile device 250 insending traffic between the mobile device and a proxy server and/or anapplication server (e.g., app server/host 110). The networkconfiguration that is selected can be determined based on informationgathered by the application behavior module 236 regarding applicationactivity state (e.g., background or foreground traffic), applicationtraffic category (e.g., interactive or maintenance traffic), anypriorities of the data/content, time sensitivity/criticality.

The blocking policy manager 178 allows traffic management policies suchas traffic blocking policies to be enforced at the mobile device via thetraffic blocking rules engine 178 a and the blocking policy effectivetime period configuration module 178 b. Enforcement of a blocking policycan be triggered by a specific event such as detection or recognition ofcongestion (e.g., via the final congestion case detector 289), orcombination of events such as congestion detection and time of day,screen status, network interface (Wi-Fi or mobile, for example), and thelike. Policies can be enforced over part of a defined time window. Forexample, the blocking policy manager can enforce a blocking policy for aperiod of time (e.g., 15 minutes) upon receiving or detecting anindication of congestion. When the blocking period of time is over, theblocking policy manager can drop the blocking policy.

In one embodiment, the blocking policy manager 178 can apply anintelligent algorithm based on a computed level of congestion todetermine an optimal amount of time to wait before attempting toreconnect. For example, if the number of confirmed congestion cases percell exceeds a threshold, then the level of congestion may be deemedhigh or above normal, and the blocking policy manager 178 can enforcethe blocking policy for a longer duration than normal. By way of anotherexample, if congestion is detected immediately after dropping theblocking policy, the blocking policy manager 178 can enforce anotherround of blocking policy for a duration longer than the previouslyenforced duration (e.g., 30 minutes instead of 15 minutes). In someinstances, if certain conditions or criteria are met, a blocking policycan be enforced for a predefined or dynamically adjusted duration. Forexample, when congestion is detected during a certain time of day (e.g.,between 5 PM and 7 PM), the blocking policy may be implemented for alonger period of time than normal (e.g., 30 minutes instead of 15minutes). In one embodiment, the level of congestion can bequantitatively determined based on factors such as number of cellsassociated n number of congestion cases (confirmed, and/or potential),number of congestion cases per cell, timing, average setup times percell, and the like and weights for the factors. Other methods fordetermining a quantitative measure of congestion may be used.

In some embodiments, the blocking policy manager 178 can block alltraffic from the mobile device for the duration of the blocking policyenforcement. Alternately, the blocking policy manager 178 can implementa priority based traffic management, whereby certain high prioritytraffic can be allowed, while other low priority traffic would not beallowed to signal the network. The priority of the traffic may bedetermined via the application behavior detector 236, for example. Theseand other rules and conditions for implementing and/or configuring ablocking policy may be specified in the rules datastore 178 d, in oneimplementation, and can be evaluated by the traffic blocking rulesengine 178 a.

FIG. 2D illustrates a block diagram depicting components of a logstorage and processing service 174 shown in FIG. 1F. The log storage andprocessing service 174 can be component of the host server or proxyserver, or can be a separate server that communicates with theclient-side and server-side proxies. As previously described, the logstorage and processing service 174 can aggregate, store and process datasuch as bytes and transactions data, network connectivity data, powerdata, subscriber count data, and the like. In one embodiment, the logstorage and processing service 174 can include a network interface 190and a packet call quality agent 133, among others.

The packet call quality agent 133 can aggregate and analyze congestionreports that include findings on congested cells or cell towers,including setup time, signal strength and/or other information frommultiple mobile devices, and provide validated and near real timefeedback about the network, saving the operator resources such as timeand money. For example, if there is a congestion in a cell tower, theoperator would be not be aware of the problem until a subscriber callsin to report the problem in his or her area, and the operator has aportable lab in the area to check for problems. However, with the packetcall quality agent 133 a, near real time information on call quality andcongestion in various geographical locations can be provided to theoperator to help the operator understand the network from a mobiledevice perspective and facilitate in shaping their strategy forpreparing or upgrading hardware in a specific geographic location orarea.

The packet call quality agent 133 can further include a congestionfeedback aggregator 133 a, a packet call quality problem detector 133 band/or a graphical reporting module 133 c. The congestion feedbackaggregator 133 a can aggregate congestion reports from mobile devicesequipped with congestion recognition, in one implementation.Alternately, the congestion feedback aggregator 133 a can query an LSPSdata store 130 for logs and/or congestion reports uploaded by mobiledevices. The congestion feedback aggregator 133 a can further aggregatecongestion reports based on network operator (e.g., AT&T, Verizon,Sprint, and the like), network connection technology (2G, 2.5G, 3G, 4GLTE, and the like), time frame (e.g., congestion reports for April,congestion reports for congestion detected between 5 PM and 7 PM), byzip code or geographical area, and the like.

The packet call quality problem detector 133 b can analyze theinformation in the congestion reports, and determine problem areas wherecall quality is poor, has poor or no coverage, and/or is congested on aregular basis. For example, in one implementation, the packet callquality problem detector 133 b can be configured to identify a locationas a problem area if the location has been reported as being congestedby at least a certain number of mobile devices. Similarly, the packetcall quality problem detector 133 b can also determine and report alocation as a chronic problem area if the location is reported as beingcongested by a certain number of mobile devices for n consecutivedays/time period. Even when a location is not reported as beingcongested, the packet call quality problem detector 133 b can examinethe call quality data, setup times, and the like to determine potentialproblem areas. The graphical reporting module 133 c can be used togenerate a graphical report and/or display a map that depicts theproblem areas (or areas in general) identified by the packet callquality problem detector 133 b. In one implementation, the graphicalreporting module 133 c provides a user interface with which operatorscan interact to specify parameters (e.g., time, geographical area, andthe like) and/or view a report or mapping of congestion patterns. Thegraphical reporting module 133 c can depict congestion information as itis available (i.e., almost real time), or on an hourly, daily, weekly orother period basis.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example map 900 generated using data fromcongestion reports from mobile devices via the graphical reportingmodule 133 c. The map 900 depicts markers corresponding to cell towersdistributed throughout a geographical region. Data from congestionreports can be overlaid on top of the map 900 to identify or markspecific cell towers which have been reported as congested during acertain period of time. For example, marker 904 identifies a cell towerthat has been identified as congested based on congestion reports fromover 400 mobile devices. Similarly, marker 902 identifies a cell towerthat has been identified as being congested based on congestion reportsfrom 52 mobile devices. The information on congestion reports can beprocessed and displayed as they become available, so that a networkoperator can view this congestion report mapping in near real time, asthe reports come in. The map 900, and/or other details may be accessedfrom a portal for network operators/service providers in oneimplementation. Alternately, aggregated congested data can be pushed ormade available to subscribing network operators/service providers.

FIG. 3A illustrates a logic flow diagram of an example method foractivating congestion recognition logic. The example method may beperformed by one or more components of the congestion recognizer 164. Atblock 302, an outgoing data request from the mobile device isintercepted by the local proxy. At decision block 304, if the datarequest is made while the radio state of the mobile device idle, thecongestion recognizer measures setup time for establishing a connectionwith the network at block 308. However, if the radio state is not idle(i.e., is connected), the data request is ignored at block 306 and thenext data request is intercepted at block 302. The setup time ismeasured as the difference between when the radio state transitions toconnected mode and when the data request was made (i.e., timestamp ofradio state transition from idle to connected—timestamp of datarequest).

At block 310, the measured setup time is stored in a memory stack. Thememory stack may be configured to store a preconfigured number ofsamples of setup time data (e.g., n samples). New setup times aremeasured and stored in the memory stack until the memory stack isdetermined to be full at decision block 312. When the memory stack isfull, the congestion logic is activated or triggered at block 314. Atblock 316, a baseline setup time value is calculated from the setup timevalues in the stack. New setup time values are then compared with thebaseline to detect an increase in setup time values which can indicatepresence of congestion in the network.

The baseline is a statistical measure of the sample of setup time valuesstored in the memory stack. In one implementation, an average and astandard deviation of the setup time samples are calculated, and addedto determine the baseline. In a further implementation, a setup timestandard deviation allowance (st_std) can be added to the baseline tomake the congestion detection logic more or less aggressive.

FIGS. 3B-3C illustrate logic flow diagrams of an example method fordetecting and verifying congestion in the mobile network. At block 320,a setup time value (e.g., the n+1 sample) for the next data request ismeasured. The setup time value is compared with the baseline todetermine whether the setup time value is higher than the baseline atdecision block 322. If the setup time value is not higher than thebaseline, the setup time value is stored in the original memory stack atblock 342. To make room for the new value, the oldest value in theoriginal memory stack is removed. At block 344, the baseline is updatedto account for the new setup time value in the original memory stack.

However, if the setup time value is greater than the baseline asdetermined at decision block 322, the setup time value is added to atemporary memory stack at block 324. If a temporary memory stack doesnot exist, a new one having the same size as the original memory stackis created. The setup time samples in the temporary memory stack formthe potential congestion cases (PCC). At block 326, the cell ID and/orlocation area code of the base station serving the mobile device whenthe setup time was calculated is retrieved. The cell ID and/or locationarea code are attached to the corresponding potential congestion case atblock 326. At block 328, congestion confirmatory data includingreception quality data (e.g., data providing indication of signalstrength (e.g., RSCP, RSSI, Ec/Io, and the like)) are retrieved andassociated with the corresponding potential congestion case.

In one implementation, the modem of the mobile device is queried todetermine if an RRC rejection message has been received. At decisionblock 330, if the data connection rejection message is received from thenetwork operator, a positive or final congestion decision is triggeredat block 358 of FIG. 3C. However, if the data connection rejection hasnot been received at decision block 330, then the signal quality data isevaluated at decision block 334. The evaluation may include determiningif the signal strength is high or low. For example, an RSCP valuebetween −105 dB and −115 dB is considered low and is indicative of poorsignal strength. Similarly, an RSCP value between −50 dB and −70 dB isconsidered high and is indicative of good signal strength. Theevaluation of the signal quality data confirms whether the increase insetup times is due to congestion in the network, or due to poor coverageor poor condition of the radio link. When the signal strength associatedwith a potential congestion case is high, the potential congestion caseis converted to a confirmed congestion case at block 332. Conversely, ifthe signal strength associated with a potential congestion case is low,the potential congestion case remains in the same state, and is notconverted to a confirmed congestion case.

At decision block 336, if the temporary stack is full of potentialcongestion cases, but there has been no positive or final congestiondecision, the content of the temporary stack is transferred to theoriginal stack at block 338, such that the original stack now includeshigher setup time values, and results in a higher baseline. Thisscenario may occur when the mobile device moves to an area that isassociated with higher setup times, which may be due to networkequipment or other reasons. For example, when a user is in his office inthe city, the mobile device may record an average setup time of 2seconds to establish a network connection. When the same user travels tohis home in the suburb, the mobile device may record an average setuptime of 3 seconds. Thus the congestion recognizer adapts to the increaseor decrease of setup times that are characteristic of the networkequipment and geographic location, and not necessarily congestion.

Referring to FIG. 3C, at block 350, the aggregated confirmed congestioncases are sorted under location area code and cell ID to further verifyif the network is actually congested. At block 352, the number of cellIDs in the same location area code that have a number of congestioncases greater than a num_ccc parameter is counted. For example, assumingthat the num_ccc parameter is 4 and cell ID 1 and 2 in the location areacode 22, each have 5 and 6 confirmed congestion cases respectively, thenumber of cell IDs counted is equal to 2. If the number of cell IDscounted at block 352 is equal to or greater than a parameter such as thepcd_trg parameter, positive or final congestion decision is triggered atblock 358. However, if the number of cell IDs counted is less than thepcd_trg, no positive congestion decision is triggered at block 364, andthe congestion recognizer continues to sample new setup times. At block360, a blocking policy to selectively block traffic from the mobiledevice from reaching the congested mobile network is applied. In oneimplementation, the blocking policy may be enforced for a predeterminedduration of time, or until a user action or other priority requestrequiring network connection is detected.

FIG. 4 illustrates a logic flow diagram of an example method fordetermining and confirming congestion in a mobile network using increasein setup times for establishing connection to the mobile network,reception quality of the connections, and distribution patterns of thecells to which the mobile device connects to. The example method may beperformed by one or more components of the local proxy 275 on the mobiledevice.

At block 402, the local proxy 275 having a congestion recognizer 164aggregates setup times for connection requests in a mobile network todetermine a baseline. In one implementation, the baseline is astatistical measure that adapts to network peculiarities. At block 404,the local proxy 275 detects increase in setup times for subsequentconnection requests in the mobile network from the baseline, and atblock 406 the local proxy 275 further determines that a base station inthe mobile network is congested based at least in part on the detectedincrease in setup times. In one implementation, the local proxy 275 usesreception quality associated with the subsequent connection requests toconfirm that the base station in the mobile network is congested atblock 408. Further at block 410, the local proxy 275 determines adistribution pattern of the subsequent connection requests based onlocation area code and base station identifier information associatedwith the subsequent connection request. At block 412, the local proxy275 uses distribution pattern of the subsequent connection requests tofurther confirm that the base station in the mobile network iscongested.

In one implementation, the local proxy 275 applies or triggersapplication of a blocking policy (via the blocking policy manager 178)to selectively block traffic from the mobile device from reaching themobile network in response to confirming that the mobile network iscongested. In a further implementation, the blocking policy is appliedfor a predefined duration of time, or until a high priority data requestis detected at the mobile device. In certain implementations, the localproxy 275 can further determine that the base station in the mobilenetwork is congested when a rejection message is received in response toany one of the subsequent connection requests. The local proxy 275 canthen apply or trigger the application of a blocking policy on trafficfrom the mobile device to reduce signaling to the mobile network.

FIG. 5 illustrates a logic flow diagram of an example method foranticipating network congestion performed by a local proxy 275 on amobile device equipped with a congestion recognizer 164. In thisembodiment, the local proxy 275 can anticipate network congestion bysampling time consumed to establish data connection between a mobiledevice and a mobile network (block 502), collecting data including atleast one of signal strength data, cell identifier, and location areacode (504 and 508) associated with the data connection between themobile device and the mobile network and anticipating, based at least onthe time consumed and the collected data, network congestion at block510. In a further implementation, the local proxy 275 can query themodem to check for connection rejection message from mobile network atblock 506 in anticipating network congestion at block 510. At block 512,the local proxy 275 can block or trigger blocking of traffic from themobile device to the mobile network in response to the anticipatednetwork congestion at block 510. In one implementation, the local proxy275 blocks low priority traffic from accessing the network. In a furtherimplementation, the low priority traffic includes requests frombackground processes on the mobile device. Alternately, the local proxy275 allows high priority traffic from the mobile device to signal themobile network. High priority traffic includes a phone call, an SMS, anMMS, an email, or other user initiated request in one implementation. Atblock 514, the local proxy 275 can generate a congestion report using atleast some of the collected data. Further at block 516, the congestionreport can be uploaded to a server cloud (e.g., LSPS 174) periodicallyor when a connection is available. In one implementation, information inthe congestion report and other congestion reports from multiple mobiledevices associated with the mobile network is aggregated and provided toan operator of the mobile network (by the local proxy 275, theserver-side proxy 125, or the LSPS 174, for example). The information inthe congestion report can provide near real time information on networkcongestion and/or packet call quality information relating to the mobilenetwork.

The local proxy 275 can anticipate network congestion on the mobilenetwork regardless of the time consumed or the collected data when thedata connection rejection message is received from the mobile network.In another implementation, the time consumed to establish the dataconnection is based on time difference between time of a data requestand time of transition of the radio state to connected state from idlestate. The data connection can be established by sending a radioresource control (RRC) connection request from the mobile device to abase station, which can be any one of a base transceiver station (BTS),evolved node B (eNodeB) or NodeB in the radio access network. The timeconsumed in establishing each data connection is compared to a thresholdto detect a potential case of network congestion. The threshold, in oneimplementation, is a statistical measure derived from a dataset storedin a memory stack, wherein the dataset includes values of time consumedto establish data connection between the mobile device and the mobilenetwork. In some instances, the threshold is adjustable by a parameterfor conservative or aggressive detection of the potential case ofnetwork congestion.

In one implementation, the signal strength data (from block 504) isevaluated against a predefined range or a threshold to determine whetherto promote the potential case of network congestion to a confirmed caseof network congestion. In a further implementation, cell identifiers andlocation area codes associated with confirmed cases of networkcongestion are used to make a final decision on the confirmed cases ofnetwork congestion to anticipate network congestion.

In some embodiments, the mobile network uses any of Global System forMobile Communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) orLong-Term Evolution (LTE) network communication technology. The localproxy 275 implementing the disclosed method anticipates the networkcongestion independent of other mobile devices on the mobile network.The local proxy 275 also anticipates network congestion withoutincurring signaling load on the mobile network.

FIG. 6 illustrates a logic flow diagram of an example method formanaging data traffic performed by local proxy 275 on a mobile deviceequipped with congestion recognition capability to reduce networksignaling. At block 602, the local proxy 275 detects increase in radioturn on time values associated with data connection requests. The localproxy 275 retrieves an indication of signal strength measured by themobile device at block 604, and determines a number of base stationsunder a location area code that are each associated with a thresholdnumber of instances of detection of increase in radio turn on timevalues at block 608. The signal strength information may be used toreduce or eliminate effect of signal strength on the detected increasein radio turn on time values. Information relating to the base stationand the location area code may be used to reduce or eliminate effect ofgeographic mobility of the mobile device on the detected increase inradio turn on time values.

At block 610, the local proxy 275 determines, based on information fromblocks 604 and 608, whether the increase in radio turn on time values isdue to congestion in the mobile network. Alternately, the local proxy275 can determine whether the increase in radio turn on time values isdue to congestion in the mobile network based on the indication ofsignal strength measured by the mobile device (block 604) or based onnumber of base stations under a location area code that are eachassociated with a threshold number of instances of detection of increasein radio turn on time values (block 608).

In one implementation, if the increase in radio turn on time values isdue to congestion in the mobile network, the local proxy 275 managesdata traffic on the mobile device by applying or triggering a blockingpolicy to reduce network signaling. The blocking policy can includerules to block data traffic having low priority and allow data traffichaving high priority to the mobile network. The data traffic having highpriority can be from active applications on the mobile device, while thedata traffic having low priority can be from applications in backgroundof the mobile device in some implementations. Alternately, if theincrease in radio turn on time values is not caused by congestion in themobile network, the local proxy 275 allows data traffic from the mobiledevice to signal the mobile network.

FIG. 7 illustrates a logic flow diagram of an example method foroptimizing data traffic to reduce network signaling. The example methodcan be performed by one or more components of the local proxy 275.

At block 702, the local proxy 275 collects a sample of radio turn ontime values associated with data connection requests. In oneimplementation, the local proxy 275 can determine radio turn on timevalue as the difference between the time of a data request from anapplication on the mobile device to transition of the radio state to aconnected state from the idle state. At block 704, the local proxy 275stores the sample of radio turn on time values in a memory stack. Thememory stack can be a logical memory on the mobile device, for example.At block 706, the local proxy 275 determines a baseline radio turn ontime value from the sample of radio turn on time values. Further atblock 708, the local proxy 275 compares radio turn on time values ofsubsequent data connection requests to the baseline radio turn on timevalue to detect potential cases of network congestion. Next at block710, the radio turn on time values for the potential cases of networkcongestion is then stored in a temporary memory stack locally on themobile device.

At block 712, the local proxy 275 evaluates the potential cases ofnetwork congestion using congestion confirmatory data to detect networkcongestion. In one implementation, the evaluation can include promotingthe potential cases of network congestion to confirmed cases of networkcongestion based on indications of signal quality associated with thepotential cases of network congestion. In a further or alternateimplementation, the evaluation can also include promoting the potentialcases of network congestion to confirmed cases of network congestionbased on a rejection message received from the network in response toone of the subsequent data connection requests. In a furtherimplementation, the evaluation can include taking a final decision onthe confirmed cases of network congestion based number of the confirmedcases of network congestion per base station in the same location areacode.

At block 714, the local proxy 275 optimizes data traffic from the mobiledevice to reduce network signaling in response to detecting networkcongestion. At block 716, the local proxy 275 reports the detection ofnetwork congestion to a remote server or network provider when aconnection is available.

FIG. 8 illustrates examples of data sampled and analyzed by thecongestion detector/recognizer 164 in detecting and verifying congestionin the mobile network. Table 802 depicts an example initial setup timestack that stores n number of setup time samples, from where a baselineis calculated. Table 804 depicts an example temporary stack that storessetup time values that are higher than the baseline. Table 806 depictspotential congestion cases from the temporary stack 804 that haveincreased setup time values. The potential congestion cases have cellID, location area code, signal strength, and/or the like along withsetup time values. Based at least on the signal strength data, some ofthe potential congestion cases (e.g., 808) are promoted to confirmedcongestion cases, which are tabulated on table 810. The confirmedcongestion cases are evaluated based on number of confirmed congestioncases per cell ID in the same location area code to determine whether totake a final decision on congestion, and enforce a blocking policy onthe mobile device to manage congestion at the mobile network.

FIG. 10 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the exampleform of a computer system within which a set of instructions, forcausing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein, may be executed.

In the example of FIG. 10, the computer system 1000 includes aprocessor, main memory, non-volatile memory, and an interface device.Various common components (e.g., cache memory) are omitted forillustrative simplicity. The computer system 1000 is intended toillustrate a hardware device on which any of the components depicted inthe example of FIGS. 2A-2D (and any other components described in thisspecification) can be implemented. The computer system 1000 can be ofany applicable known or convenient type. The components of the computersystem 1000 can be coupled together via a bus or through some otherknown or convenient device.

The processor may be, for example, a conventional microprocessor such asan Intel Pentium microprocessor or Motorola power PC microprocessor. Oneof skill in the relevant art will recognize that the terms“machine-readable (storage) medium” or “computer-readable (storage)medium” include any type of device that is accessible by the processor.

The memory is coupled to the processor by, for example, a bus. Thememory can include, by way of example but not limitation, random accessmemory (RAM), such as dynamic RAM (DRAM) and static RAM (SRAM). Thememory can be local, remote, or distributed.

The bus also couples the processor to the non-volatile memory and driveunit. The non-volatile memory is often a magnetic floppy or hard disk, amagnetic-optical disk, an optical disk, a read-only memory (ROM), suchas a CD-ROM, EPROM, or EEPROM, a magnetic or optical card, or anotherform of storage for large amounts of data. Some of this data is oftenwritten, by a direct memory access process, into memory during executionof software in the computer 1000. The non-volatile storage can be local,remote, or distributed. The non-volatile memory is optional becausesystems can be created with all applicable data available in memory. Atypical computer system will usually include at least a processor,memory, and a device (e.g., a bus) coupling the memory to the processor.

Software is typically stored in the non-volatile memory and/or the driveunit. Indeed, for large programs, it may not even be possible to storethe entire program in the memory. Nevertheless, it should be understoodthat for software to run, if necessary, it is moved to a computerreadable location appropriate for processing, and for illustrativepurposes, that location is referred to as the memory in this paper. Evenwhen software is moved to the memory for execution, the processor willtypically make use of hardware registers to store values associated withthe software, and local cache. Ideally, this serves to speed upexecution. As used herein, a software program is assumed to be stored atany known or convenient location (from non-volatile storage to hardwareregisters) when the software program is referred to as “implemented in acomputer-readable medium.” A processor is considered to be “configuredto execute a program” when at least one value associated with theprogram is stored in a register readable by the processor.

The bus also couples the processor to the network interface device. Theinterface can include one or more of a modem or network interface. Itwill be appreciated that a modem or network interface can be consideredto be part of the computer system. The interface can include an analogmodem, isdn modem, cable modem, token ring interface, satellitetransmission interface (e.g., “direct PC”), or other interfaces forcoupling a computer system to other computer systems. The interface caninclude one or more input and/or output devices. The I/O devices caninclude, by way of example but not limitation, a keyboard, a mouse orother pointing device, disk drives, printers, a scanner, and other inputand/or output devices, including a display device. The display devicecan include, by way of example but not limitation, a cathode ray tube(CRT), liquid crystal display (LCD), or some other applicable known orconvenient display device. For simplicity, it is assumed thatcontrollers of any devices not depicted in the example of FIG. 10 residein the interface.

In operation, the computer system 1000 can be controlled by operatingsystem software that includes a file management system, such as a diskoperating system. One example of operating system software withassociated file management system software is the family of operatingsystems known as Windows® from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.,and their associated file management systems. Another example ofoperating system software with its associated file management systemsoftware is the Linux operating system and its associated filemanagement system. The file management system is typically stored in thenon-volatile memory and/or drive unit and causes the processor toexecute the various acts required by the operating system to input andoutput data and to store data in the memory, including storing files onthe non-volatile memory and/or drive unit.

Some portions of the detailed description may be presented in terms ofalgorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bitswithin a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to adesired result. The operations are those requiring physicalmanipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily,these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capableof being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwisemanipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasonsof common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements,symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion,it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or“determining” or “displaying” or the like, refer to the action andprocesses of a computer system, or similar electronic computing devicethat manipulates and transforms data represented as physical(electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers andmemories into other data similarly represented as physical quantitieswithin the computer system memories or registers or other suchinformation storage, transmission, or display devices.

The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purposesystems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specializedapparatus to perform the methods of some embodiments. The requiredstructure for a variety of these systems will appear from thedescription below. In addition, the techniques are not described withreference to any particular programming language, and variousembodiments may thus be implemented using a variety of programminglanguages.

In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone deviceor may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networkeddeployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or aclient machine in a client-server network environment, or as a peermachine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment.

The machine may be a server computer, a client computer, a personalcomputer (PC), a tablet PC, a laptop computer, a set-top box (STB), apersonal digital assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, an iPhone, aBlackberry, a processor, a telephone, a web appliance, a network router,switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing a set ofinstructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be takenby that machine.

While the machine-readable medium or machine-readable storage medium isshown in an exemplary embodiment to be a single medium, the term“machine-readable medium” and “machine-readable storage medium” shouldbe taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., acentralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches andservers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The term“machine-readable medium” and “machine-readable storage medium” shallalso be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing, encodingor carrying a set of instructions for execution by the machine and thatcause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of thepresently disclosed technique and innovation.

In general, the routines executed to implement the embodiments of thedisclosure, may be implemented as part of an operating system or aspecific application, component, program, object, module, or sequence ofinstructions referred to as “computer programs.” The computer programstypically comprise one or more instructions set at various times invarious memory and storage devices in a computer, and that, when readand executed by one or more processing units or processors in acomputer, cause the computer to perform operations to execute elementsinvolving the various aspects of the disclosure.

Moreover, while embodiments have been described in the context of fullyfunctioning computers and computer systems, those skilled in the artwill appreciate that the various embodiments are capable of beingdistributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that thedisclosure applies equally regardless of the particular type of machineor computer-readable media used to actually effect the distribution.

Further examples of machine-readable storage media, machine-readablemedia, or computer-readable (storage) media include but are not limitedto recordable type media such as volatile and non-volatile memorydevices, floppy and other removable disks, hard disk drives, opticaldisks (e.g., Compact Disk Read-Only Memory (CD ROMS), Digital VersatileDisks, (DVDs), etc.), among others, and transmission type media such asdigital and analog communication links.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout thedescription and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and thelike are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to anexclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of“including, but not limited to.” As used herein, the terms “connected,”“coupled,” or any variant thereof, means any connection or coupling,either direct or indirect, between two or more elements; the coupling ofconnection between the elements can be physical, logical, or acombination thereof. Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,”and words of similar import, when used in this application, shall referto this application as a whole and not to any particular portions ofthis application. Where the context permits, words in the above DetailedDescription using the singular or plural number may also include theplural or singular number respectively. The word “or,” in reference to alist of two or more items, covers all of the following interpretationsof the word: any of the items in the list, all of the items in the list,and any combination of the items in the list.

The above detailed description of embodiments of the disclosure is notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the teachings to the precise formdisclosed above. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, thedisclosure are described above for illustrative purposes, variousequivalent modifications are possible within the scope of thedisclosure, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. Forexample, while processes or blocks are presented in a given order,alternative embodiments may perform routines having steps, or employsystems having blocks in a different order, and some processes or blocksmay be deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/or modified toprovide alternative or subcombinations. Each of these processes orblocks may be implemented in a variety of different ways. Also, whileprocesses or blocks are at times shown as being performed in series,these processes or blocks may instead be performed in parallel, or maybe performed at different times. Further any specific numbers notedherein are only examples: alternative implementations may employdiffering values or ranges.

The teachings of the disclosure provided herein can be applied to othersystems, not necessarily the system described above. The elements andacts of the various embodiments described above can be combined toprovide further embodiments.

Any patents and applications and other references noted above, includingany that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporatedherein by reference. Aspects of the disclosure can be modified, ifnecessary, to employ the systems, functions, and concepts of the variousreferences described above to provide yet further embodiments of thedisclosure.

These and other changes can be made to the disclosure in light of theabove Detailed Description. While the above description describescertain embodiments of the disclosure, and describes the best modecontemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, theteachings can be practiced in many ways. Details of the system may varyconsiderably in its implementation details, while still beingencompassed by the subject matter disclosed herein. As noted above,particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspectsof the disclosure should not be taken to imply that the terminology isbeing redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics,features, or aspects of the disclosure with which that terminology isassociated. In general, the terms used in the following claims shouldnot be construed to limit the disclosure to the specific embodimentsdisclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Descriptionsection explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope ofthe disclosure encompasses not only the disclosed embodiments, but alsoall equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the disclosure underthe claims.

While certain aspects of the disclosure are presented below in certainclaim forms, the inventors contemplate the various aspects of thedisclosure in any number of claim forms. For example, while only oneaspect of the disclosure is recited as a means-plus-function claim under35 U.S.C. §112, ¶13, other aspects may likewise be embodied as ameans-plus-function claim, or in other forms, such as being embodied ina computer-readable medium. (Any claims intended to be treated under 35U.S.C. §112, ¶13 will begin with the words “means for.”) Accordingly,the applicant reserves the right to add additional claims after filingthe application to pursue such additional claim forms for other aspectsof the disclosure.

1. A system for reducing signaling overload on a mobile network,comprising: a mobile client residing on a mobile device, wherein themobile client uses time elapsed to establish connection with a mobilebase station in the mobile network to recognize congestion at the mobilebase station, and in response to recognizing congestion at the mobilebase station, selectively blocks traffic from the mobile device fromtraversing the mobile network to reduce signaling overload on the mobilenetwork.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile client logs thetime elapsed to periodically inform a service provider associated withthe mobile network regarding the congestion at the mobile base station.3. The system of claim 1, wherein the congestion is recognized by themobile client residing on the mobile device, independent of other mobileclients residing on other mobile devices on the mobile network.
 4. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the congestion is recognized by the mobileclient without incurring signaling load on the mobile network.
 5. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the congestion is recognized by the mobileclient before a rejection to a connection request is received from themobile base station.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile clientselectively blocks the traffic from the mobile device based on timecriticality of transactions.
 7. The system of claim 6, wherein a timecritical transaction includes a transaction resulting from auser-initiated request.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the selectiveblocking is in effect until the end of a predefined time period or whena time critical transaction is received.
 9. The system of claim 1,wherein the mobile client recognizes congestion at the mobile basestation without requiring mobile network infrastructure support.
 10. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the mobile client recognizes congestion atthe mobile base station without relying on a specific mobile devicechipset or baseband.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobileclient queries a modem on the mobile device for signal strength and basestation information to validate congestion at the mobile base station.12. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile client uses applicationbehavior to categorize application traffic and selectively blockscertain types of application traffic from traversing the mobile networkto reduce signaling overload on the mobile network.
 13. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the base station is a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) ina Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) or Code DivisionMultiple Access (CDMA) mobile network, a Node B in a 3G mobile networkor an Evolved Node B in Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network.
 14. A machinereadable storage medium having stored thereon instructions which whenexecuted by a machine, causes the machine to: detect increase in setuptimes for connection requests in a mobile network from a baseline;detect congestion at one or more base stations in the mobile networkbased at least in part on the detected increase in setup times, wherein,the congestion is detected by the mobile client before a rejection to aconnection request is received from one of the base stations.
 15. Themedium of claim 14, wherein the machine applies a blocking policy toselectively block traffic from a mobile device from reaching the mobilenetwork in response to detecting and confirming that the mobile networkis congested.